House of Reptiles
by Jonohex
Summary: Tomoki and Naruto are abducted by a ninja team from Earth Country, and taken to a land consumed by war.
1. A Chance to Atone

**The Valley of Unrest**

Tomoki walked the bustling, agreeable streets of Konoha with eyes downcast and hands in pockets. Though he was a genin, a ninja of the lowest rank, this day he wore no uniform, carried no weapons and wandered instead accoutered in baggy jeans and a black t-shirt emblazoned with the lurid, white, jolly-roger logo of his favorite manga series.

The afternoon sun shone brightly and the sky was a brilliant blue – colors that failed utterly to match his dolorous mood. He continued along the clean, concrete and wood-sided apartments and shops with their cheery window boxes, metal overhangs and winding runs of un-self-consciously exposed conduit and crooked downspouts. Most people paid him no mind as they walked past, but every now and then their conversations slowed, their laughter stopped or their children gawked at the great mottled and swollen bruise that bloomed over the right side of his face.

Tomoki took a breath and looked up ahead with his amber eyes through the crowds, the colorful banners, and advertisements that were strung over the streets. In the midst of all those brown and black-haired heads that bobbed up and down, he spotted one that was bushy and bright yellow. The genin squinted his eyes, looked closer and saw the flash of white collar, blue shoulder and bright orange sleeve – clothing he knew could only belong to one person. The boy frowned and turned aside before Naruto Uzumaki could see him, then quickened his pace down a side alley and headed in the opposite direction down another street toward the bazaar.

Crowds of shoppers and browsers, dense clusters of vendors' stalls, and low, fabric overhangs, awaited him. The dark edge of the bazaar's shade passed over him as he entered. At once he found himself surrounded by wares, produce and people from all over the Land of Fire and beyond. Voices called and people haggled over prices. Everyone here was engrossed in the performance art of commerce and all the ways it played on the senses: the textures of textiles, the heft of tools and cookware; the sound of flutes and mandolins, the barkers' insistent cries combined with snatches of conversations conducted in strange accents; the scents of meat cooking and pastries baking mingled with perfumes, garbage and animal musks; and finally, the sights of all the jewelry, clothing, and crafts. People were all far too occupied to pay his marked face any attention, and so he slipped again into blissful anonymity.

He wandered for awhile, pausing here and there to listen to music, watch the plate jugglers then inspect a collection of swords, before he moved on through the crowds -- his stride purposeful though he had no particular place to go. A girl wandered in front of him, holding up before her a blue dress on a hanger. He stopped short and bumped gently into her, then slid by. "Excuse me," he muttered distantly.

"Tomoki?" her familiar voice called to his back and he turned.

"Oh," he replied as he recognized her face, "Hi, Sakura."

Sakura Haruno gave him a good-natured smile. She was pretty, pink-haired, and wore the deep garnet dress piped with silver that Tomoki had come to associate with her. "I hardly recognized you in those clothes," she said, then her jade eyes fell to the side of his face and her expression melted with sympathy. "Wow," she began, "Does it hurt?"

"Only when I breathe," he replied, then put her at ease, "it's nothing really."

Sakura nodded then glanced upward with resignation. "I guess there's always next time…for both of us."

"Sure," agreed the genin more pensively than he'd intended. "You really fought well, though, Sakura. I shouldn't say I was surprised, but I was very impressed."

"Really?" she asked in a doubtful tone. "You think so?"

"Oh, yeah," he agreed hurriedly, "absolutely."

She frowned, but looked at him again with hope. "Really?"

"I don't know how else to say it," he affirmed with a chuckle. "You were beating Ino so bad, I thought she must've stole something…"

Sakura laughed at his emphatic delivery. "Hardly," she corrected him. "After all, it was a draw."

The boy waved away her objection. "Never mind that," he insisted. "It was still a great fight. And I know I could never have gotten out of her mind-transfer jutsu like you did."

"Thanks, Tomoki," she said with genuine gratitude, then after a moment added: "Hey, your fight was great too!"

The boy shook his head and shut his eyes. "That's nice of you…but you don't have to say that."

"I mean it," she said and her brow narrowed. "Kenshiro's tough! And it must have been hard, having to go up against your own teammate."

"Yeah," he muttered with his face downcast.

The girl draped the dress she carried over one arm, then reached out and squeezed his shoulder. "There's always next time," she assured him.

He shrugged with affected nonchalance. "It's all…water under the bridge now."

An awkward pause ensued, and both inched back from the thoroughfare as people flowed past them. Sakura's face lit. "Oh," she said as she remembered. "You're a guy, right?" she asked playfully.

The genin raised an eyebrow and smiled as he played along. "'Last time I checked."

"What do you think?" She inquired, then raised the dress before her, pressing it up to her neck and gathering it at her waist. It was a shimmering, midnight blue.

Tomoki, out of his depth, nodded agreeably. "It's nice," he offered.

"Does it make me look beautiful?"

"No."

Her eyes darted up at him crossly, her ample forehead creased with anger. "No?!"

Tomoki held up his hands. "I didn't mean it like that!" he explained in a panic.

"Well how did you mean it?"

"I…it's just that," he stammered as he rubbed the back of his closely-cropped head, "you're beautiful all the time, you don't need a dress just for that."

Her expression softened at once. "Oh…that's so nice of you." She gave him a clever smile, then asked: "When did you get so good at flattering a girl?"

He shrugged shyly and lifted his hands. "So…are you going to get it?"

"No," she admitted. "I'm just looking. That reminds me, Naruto's looking for you."

Tomoki knitted his brow for a moment before he smiled and said, "Thanks for the warning."

Sakura looked at him with surprise. "Oh," she began, then ventured, "I thought that you were friends."

"We are," affirmed the genin guiltily. "We are, but…it depends on the day sometimes."

The girl nodded sagely. "I do know what you mean."

Being that she was Naruto's teammate, he had no doubt that she did. Tomoki raised his eyes to her. "He is a good guy, though," he stated, "seriously."

"Yeah," she agreed thoughtfully. "I know."

"And he's got a thing for you," he ventured with a hint of trepidation in his voice as he suggested: "Maybe you should give him a chance?"

She looked at him pointedly, rising to his audacity. "I'll think about it," she replied cagily then studied his face. "Did he put you up to this?

"No!" he promised and held up his hands. "And please, don't tell him I said anything. I don't know how he'd take it."

Sakura stood straight and tall. "Your secret's safe with me," she vowed with pretended gravity.

"I should probably get going," said Tomoki who bowed politely then raised a finger toward his face. "I need to get a raw steak or something…you know."

Sakura chuckled. "Take care of yourself, Tomoki," she said tenderly, then added fiercely, "and train hard, 'cause the next chunin exam will be here before you know it!"

Tomoki smiled broadly as he turned to go, then vanished into the crowd.

* * *

The young ninja wandered, absorbed in introspection, until a powerful hand suddenly gripped his face, jerked him into an alley and slammed him into the wall. The impact rattled through him and pain pulsed through his wounded cheek; his arms flailed helplessly against the crushing force while his legs dangled high off the ground. At last the monstrous hand released him and he fell limply to the pavement, landed on his backside and clutched his throbbing face.

"What was that?" The memorable, demanding voice of Esmeralda-sensei rang like a gong in his ears. "I spend all that time training you and what happens: you fall apart like a wet paper towel!" The boy looked up at his teacher from where he huddled, caught between resentment and resignation. She towered over him, broad-chested and thick limbed, and pointed her finger accusingly while she stormed: "You're supposed to be a shinobi, a warrior; not some weakling too paralyzed with sentiment to fight!"

His teacher then set into him for the better part of half-an-hour about his faults and failings, her disappointment, and the many broader implications.

"You don't have to tell me," Tomoki informed her testily when she was through, "I was there, remember?" His face fell into his hands and he heaved a disgruntled sigh. "Is that what you came to say?"

The jonin scowled at him, her brow furrowed beneath her blue, hidden-leaf headband, then she paced up and down the alleyway. "In part," she said. "I know it sucks that you had to fight Kenshiro, but you screwed up your chance to become a chunin." She frowned and squeezed her knobby, scarred chin. "You screwed him up too -- the way you sent him on with a tainted victory because you didn't give your best."

"I know, sensei," Tomoki admitted as he draped his arms over his knees, "and I'm sorry for that."

Esmeralda hissed out a breath and leaned against the wall. Tomoki knew her well enough to know that she'd said plainly all that was on her mind, and though she'd expect him to be mindful, she would not dwell on this or mention it again unless it was relevant. He gathered his breath then ventured, "What's the other part?"

The big woman glanced down at him, and her mood changed perceptibly. "The Hokage sent me to get you," she said in a serious, halting voice, then turned toward him. "So is there anything you want to tell me? Did you do something else stupid?" Her ebon eyes narrowed.

"No!" Tomoki pleaded, then amended softly, "at least…not that I remember."

Esmeralda frowned and cocked her head. "All right," she muttered with a wince as she pulled him up and helped brush off scraps of litter that clung to his pants. "I guess we'll both find out what this is all about." A couple of young kunoichi academy students turned into the alley just then, froze at a single look from the jonin, turned, then wisely headed back the way they came. "Well, come on, do your jutsu and take us to the Hokage's hall," she urged then looked at him and shook her head. "Just look at you…not even in a decent uniform either."

The boy wove his fingers together. "Shadow-gate jutsu," he announced without enthusiasm and the shadows deepened at once into pure, pitch black. Teacher and student exchanged brief looks, then Tomoki stepped into the darkness and vanished with Esmeralda following close behind.

* * *

The genin waited uneasily, stationed in a chair with chin in chest and arms folded. The room was easily big enough to accommodate a class, but was entirely empty except for the single chair, a long table at the front, and three chairs behind it. The floor's expanse of polished, orange hardwood stretched between bare, wainscoted walls. Esmeralda-sensei waited at the open window with her back toward him, hands clasped behind her, as she gazed out into the long-needled pines beyond that swayed gently with the wind – a dark outline struck against bright sky and cris-crossing evergreen boughs.

The Hokage didn't keep them waiting long, and entered without fanfare through the open door. Tomoki looked up at the old man – the great ninja lord of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. His face was weathered, wrinkled and spotted with age, and his chin was adorned by a small, white and neatly-trimmed, pointed beard. He wore voluminous white robes and a shallow, conical, red and white hat – a mantle indicative of his office. A pipe hung unlit in his mouth.

Esmeralda turned crisply and bowed, while Tomoki pushed himself to his feet and did the same. Though Naruto always spoke with brazen, sometimes shocking, irreverence about their master, Tomoki felt immediately unsettled by his presence and wished he could be anywhere else.

"Esmeralda," the Hokage acknowledged respectfully in his gruff, sure voice, "thank you for acting so quickly. Tomoki, I appreciate your coming." Tomoki watched glumly as the ninja lord took the center seat at the table, then pressed his hands together and gave him an inscrutable glance. "You fought well at the chunin exams. Though it's certainly regrettable that your progress ended the way it did," he remarked, then continued cryptically, "perhaps that's just as well."

The boy's expression flickered, uncertain of his meaning, and he gave a nervous perfunctory nod.

"Well then," said the Hokage, "I'll get right to the point. Tell me, Tomoki…can you think of any reason why anyone would wish to abduct you?"

Tomoki's eyes lifted with astonishment then he leaned forward. "What!?" he gasped blankly. "No, Hokage," said the boy with an anxious chuckle as he shook his head. A meaningful silence and raised eyebrows prompted him to reiterate more vigorously: "No, really," he began. "I…can't think of anyone who'd want to kidnap me. It's not like I have any money or anything."

The old man looked at him from beneath the broad brim of his hat. "I believe you, Tomoki, but still I felt it would be remiss not to ask the obvious question." He gave the genin an avuncular smile, which did nothing to set him at ease, then took his pipe in hand. "I expect that you'll be surprised then to learn that there's a team of ninjas here in Konoha, whose mission is to take you."

"A team of…!" The genin again shook his head with disbelief. "How…how do you know this?" he asked in a creaky voice. "I mean, how do you know they're after me?"

The Hokage seemed to accept this as a reasonable question. "The roads to our village are patrolled by sentries," explained the ninja lord. "One of them came upon the three on their way here. Exercising discretion and stealth, like any good chunin, she learned of their plans and promptly informed me."

"Huh…," remarked Tomoki who bobbed his head. Noticing how his breath had quickened, he paused a moment to calm himself before he asked: "So…what happens now?"

The Hokage grinned. "I thought I would consult you about that."

"Me?" the genin piped.

"Indeed," he affirmed. "You see, although we now know what, that is to say, who they're after…we don't know who they are or who dispatched them." His ashen brows lifted in thought. "It seems to me that the best way to uncover those answers fully is to allow their mission to succeed."

Esmeralda whistled, appreciative of the situation, then all fell quiet as a breeze coursed through the trees outside and filled the room with its whisper.

Tomoki frowned with puzzlement. "So…you want me to let them kidnap me," he expressed with some trepidation.

The Hokage's eyes lifted toward the genin's teacher. "Please, Esmeralda," he began gently. "Would you give us a moment?" With barely a flicker in her expression, the jonin bowed then departed. Tomoki's eyes followed her out the door. The ninja lord then rose slowly from his chair, came around to the front of the table and leaned against it. "Tomoki," he said unhurriedly as if to the air, "Maeda."

The boy's mouth fell open. He couldn't recall the last time he'd heard the sound of his own last name. He hardly even thought it since that terrible day six years ago when it had become irrelevant. His mind froze as it tried to encompass what it meant that this man could pull a fact like that from the ether. How vast were his powers? What else might he know? Could it be that he had not passed through the academy as unnoticed as he'd always believed?

"Do you love this country?" the Hokage continued abruptly, reigning-in the boy's wandering thoughts.

Tomoki blinked uncertainly, still completely unbalanced. "Love?" he muttered, perplexed and surprised by the question. "I don't know…never really thought about it." The genin closed his eyes then straightened. "I wandered as a refugee for a long time. The Hidden Leaf Village took me in when nowhere else would…so I guess I do feel a sense of obligation."

The old man nodded. "Well put," he granted. "I appreciate that you respect me enough to tell me the truth." The Hokage then wandered abstractly toward the open window and gazed out. "If I may share a moment of honesty with you, it is no easy thing for me to send my ninja into danger, especially those as young as you. This mission that I feel…compelled to send you on, if it leads where I think it might, promises great danger and perhaps much worse for you but also offers the possibility for Konoha to gain information and even insight about a region of which we know little," he explained then turned back toward the boy. "It is for this reason only that I would entertain the idea of sending a genin on what I consider to be a 'B'-rank mission."

Tomoki's eyes widened. "A…a 'B'-rank?" he gasped. The very definition meant that the task was so crucial and dangerous that jonin or chunin level ninja were required.

"It will, do doubt, require a great deal of improvisation and judgment on your part, therefore I shall give you a wide latitude in terms of the details." The Hokage smirked at him. Tomoki's eyes lit, but he bit at his lip. "I can see it in your face that you're eager enough for the challenge…but maybe a little daunted and still stung by your defeat at the hands of Kenshiro." The genin looked away, unable to look his master coolly in the eyes the way he thought he should – the way a real ninja would. If the Hokage was disappointed, he gave no outward sign of it and instead returned to the boy's side. "Maybe you're thinking to yourself: why me? Why not send somebody bigger, stronger, older or more experienced? My answer to that is: why not you? If you have survived so far, your missions as well as Esmeralda's punishing tutelage, then you must be doing something right. Then, finally I would tell you that I've been around for a long, long time and can say with some certainty that we could do worse."

Tomoki's features pinched in thought. He felt weightless and insubstantial – a feather balanced upon a windy precipice.

"I take it," the Hokage went on before the boy could drown himself in thought, "that Esmeralda has talked to you about your loss at the chunin exams, and has explained to you that a ninja rarely has a choice about who they must kill. It is often not someone evil, that they dislike or who otherwise 'deserves' it – for whatever that means."

The boy nodded then managed to rasp: "yes, Hokage…she did."

The ninja lord nodded with curt finality then bowed, a slight gesture of his head, then moved toward the doorway. Tomoki rose and bowed deeply, then froze as the Hokage paused at the threshold where he stood for several moments in silence. The genin shut his eyes, feeling dizzy as he awaited the ninja lord's final words to him. At last the Hokage said without turning, "It does not upset me, however, to know that there are Hidden-Leaf ninja who would not cut their way through a friend merely to advance themselves."

Only after the ninja lord had left could he speak again. "Thank you, Hokage," Tomoki muttered. "I won't let you down."


	2. The Woman by the Roadside

Tomoki woke the next morning with a feeling of ambivalence that overwhelmed everything but the heady anticipation of his impending abduction.

_A 'B'-rank mission_, the thought churned in his head as he tried to encompass all that it meant. _I can't understand why the Hokage would think I'd even be capable…or why he'd trust me with something like this._

He puffed out a breath then rose from his bed's sagging mattress and set his bare feet on the plywood floor. A beam of sunlight surged in through the tall, arch-topped window set at the end of the vaulted, bare-framed, gambrel ceiling, and made specs of dust blaze like tiny comets. The new day's brightness made the attic look messier than he remembered it had the previous night, with books and scrolls strewn about the floor, and the strange pieces of furniture that had been here when Ichi had offered this attic to him – a hand-wound record player, wardrobe, a voluminous papasan chair, coat rack and other 'heirlooms' in various states of repair, some wrapped in canvas.

Before he changed out of his pajamas, he straightened the place up a bit, then made his way to the bathroom. A look in the mirror informed him that the bruise along his cheek had faded slightly. _Who'd have thought that being a ninja could be so…dangerous?_ he considered sardonically then tended to his morning ablutions – showering and brushing his teeth.

When he was finished, he dressed, took down his swords then sat on his bed with them laid across his knees. He tried to use this time to meditate, but his restless mind made it all but impossible.

"_So what's wrong this time?" Ichi's question played in his memory. "Naruto," he'd intoned as his answer, and then – "how could he fight like that, how could he be so strong after starving for four days, and then beat two animal-spirits, Hsien and Inukaya, who I couldn't beat after three tries!"_

_His old mentor had frowned sagely, shaken his head then looked at him. "You know very well how," he'd replied in a calm drawl. "His energy is boundless, and you will never be able to match it."_

_Tomoki had pounded his fist on his tabletop. "It's not fair!" he'd groaned._

_"Be grateful instead that you haven't had to pay the price he's paid for that power – how many years of misery. Consider this too, it was because of that nine-tailed fox that lives within him that Abbot Lin had him imprisoned in the first place." Tomoki had only scowled and looked away. Ichi was rarely a reliable source for comfort or easy answers, so the boy supposed he should have known better. "Listen, Tomoki," his mentor had continued, "it's always easier to see the possibilities of other people's gifts than your own. Your way lies down a quieter path, but it is no less than his." The boy's look had been skeptical, but he listened to what the old man had to say. "Naruto's foundation is in self-confidence," the soothsayer had explained. "Yours is in humility."_

_The boy had goggled tiredly and rubbed his eye. "Humility…," he'd grumbled scornfully, "great."_

_"Yes, I know," Ichi had laughed understandingly. "It's not what you wished to hear." His mentor had then refreshed his tea and his guest's and drew a contemplative sip. "Paradoxically, young master, there is strength in humility. Discovering it is not easy. I can show you the way, if you wish it, but would prevail on you first to be content instead with what you have and who you are. That is a great achievement for anyone." Their conversation had come to an end then as a patient walked in for their appointment. Ichi had risen and patted Tomoki kindly on the back. "Take some time and think about it." _

The boy looked up now and his fingers drummed against his sheathed swords. _What had the Hokage said – 'Why not you?'_ the remembrance blurted in his mind. "Yeah, why not me?" the ninja answered himself aloud.

Gripping handle and scabbard, he pulled a blade free and inspected it. He'd cared for them fastidiously, but lamented how worn they were from hard use. 'Like a lawnmower blade,' Iruka-sensei had once told him. _What does losing to Kenshiro mean anyway, _his thoughts turned toward the other subject that bothered him, _one individual contest in such an artificial environment?_ _I mean, how many real fights are like that – in a sealed room, one on one, with no shadows or objects?_

Even though he'd cleaned his weapons just yesterday, he cleaned them again, oiled them carefully and wiped them off. _Ah, don't kid yourself,_ he scolded himself angrily _…everyone was put in that same position for a reason. The arena and the match-ups favored some more than others, but still, some rose to the challenge and some fell apart. Naruto improvised, Shikamaru used strategy, and Sasuke won without even using a jutsu. Rock Lee..._he paused and looked up as he remembered how bravely he'd fought and what he'd sacrificed in pursuit of his path. _That guy's a hero, even though he lost. They should write ballads and epics about him and his fight with Gaara._

The genin raised his blades, one at a time, into the light. He had a few other swords, but they were cheap and made of cast steel – pale imitations at best compared to this pair which were proper weapons crafted of folded, hammered steel, and prepared with all the arcane orthodoxy of the sword-smith's art. They'd served him well and saved his life countless times now, against men and monsters. He could no longer see them as inanimate objects, but what his years of diligent practice had made them – extensions of himself.

_So what else is bugging you?_ he asked himself. _You should've done better? You wanted to impress people? Since when did you care about stuff like that?!_

The genin bit off a piece of silk thread and held up his sword with the edge up. _Ok, so Esmeralda thinks you're worthless…and the rest think you're a loser. You know something: if you pull off this mission, well, that would set things straight, now wouldn't it?_ He threw out one end of the thread and let it fall toward the blade, then pulled on the other end and watched how it split.

"Yup," he muttered appreciatively, "that's plenty sharp alright." Satisfied, he put on his multi-pocketed vest, filled his canteen, and made sure he was properly outfitted with shuriken, kunai knives, twine, matches, compass and other useful items he might need. Lastly, he tied on his hidden leaf headband, took a deep, preparatory breath then started out the door.

* * *

Tomoki's first order of business was breakfast. Normally, he'd just have some fruit, but since he didn't know when his next meal might be he thought he'd better eat something more substantial. His nose lead him to a countered stall – a kitchen called Triple Happiness. He ducked under its ornamental drapery, walked in and took a stool. The place seemed clean and homey. Behind the lacquered, wooden counter was a narrow aisle that fronted a prep table, long grille and two ranges filled with bubbling pots and steaming pans. A lone cook danced between them, alternately stirring, flipping, chopping, mixing and pouring.

As Tomoki leaned his elbows on the counter to wait his turn, the cook hopped briskly toward the other end of the counter to clear away some dishes – piles and piles of them! After the man's second trip, with both arms fully loaded, Tomoki leaned back to look and his eyes fell upon his former academy classmates Chouji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara. Chouji, as always in his green shirt, white scarf and curiously-fashioned headband that split his bushy, brown hair into two thickets, rested his perennially-bandaged forearms over his wide, round belly in great contentment. Shikamaru, tall and lean, with his dark, slate colored hair pulled up in a thick pony-tail, seemed annoyed and anxious to go.

The proprietor returned to them and an argument developed.

"Why'd you eat so much if you didn't have any money?" grumbled Shikamaru in his low, flat voice as he drummed the back of his hand against his friend's meaty shoulder.

Chouji gave him a disconcerted look. "I thought you were gonna spot me," he whined, at which Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"What made you think I was gonna do that?" he asked testily. "You saw how little I was eating!"

The cook glowered crossly at the both of them and folded his ropey arms. "I hope you don't think food's free here!"

Tomoki blew out a breath, reached for a pocket, picked out a ten-ryo coin then rolled it down the counter as the three's disagreement began to escalate. The woman who sat a pair of seats down from him watched it pass before her, then took another sip of her juice. Voices fell silent as the coin stopped in front of the two genin and the cook snatched it before it even had the chance to fall.

Now smiling, he exclaimed, "Guess it's a lucky day for all of us!"

Tomoki's two classmates leaned back and looked over at him, at which he smiled and gave them an acknowledging nod. Shikamaru's expression was dubious, but Chouji beamed. The whorl tattoos on his pudgy cheeks rose. "Thanks, Tomoki!" he gusted. "You saved our lives, or at least a few hours of washing dishes and peeling vegetables!"

"It's ok," said Tomoki casually, then turned as the cook rushed up to take his order.

"What'll you have, 'big money'?" he asked eagerly.

The genin cocked his head toward Chouji. "I'll take whatever he had," he replied boldly, then added, "Just one plate though."

"Eels and eggs it is!" the cook agreed and spun away before his young customer could catch him.

"So what's this about?" inquired Shikamaru as he walked up to Tomoki. "I mean, you never have anything to say and now you're buying us eats? What gives?"

Tomoki, unprepared for an inquisition, explained coolly, "Just trying to be nice."

"Come on, Shikamaru," Chouji intervened on their benefactor's behalf.

"It seems weird, that's all," his teammate continued warily.

"Oh, well, if that's how you feel," said Tomoki, rising to the genin's suspicions. "I'll just spit in your face next time."

Shikamaru and Tomoki stared holes through each other while Chouji shook his head and cursed under his breath.

"Hey!" the cook hollered. "The only beef in here is stewed or barbequed, anything else you take outside!"

The tall ninja's hard expression broke into a smile, and Tomoki's quickly followed.

"Hey," said Shikamaru agreeably, now apparently satisfied, "thanks for breakfast."

His stocky companion shrugged with exasperation then socked him in the arm. "What is wrong with you?" he bellowed. "Why didn't you just say that in the first place?"

The two complained back and forth as they sat down on either side of Tomoki just as his meal arrived. 'Eels and eggs' meant grilled eel and scrambled eggs, and actually looked quite tasty.

"So what brings you down?" asked Shikamaru, this time genially. "Never saw you in here before."

"I'll have to eat good if I want to heal up," replied Tomoki between mouthfuls. "Hey," he remarked to Chouji, "this is really good."

"You see?!" agreed Chouji, who leaned forward to announce to his teammate: "That's what I've been trying to tell you!"

Shikamaru grunted. "It's your own fault," he criticized. "What were you thinking anyway? Trying to take on Kenshiro like that -- your aiki-jutsu against his metal-element fist. Not a smart move."

"Yeah," the young ninja sighed. "That's what I'm told, and I'm starting to believe it. Maybe I'll know better next time." He took another bite of his eel, then some eggs. He glanced at the dark-haired genin and put aside his envy. "That was nice work, by the way," he managed, "beating that sound village kunoichi."

Chouji groaned, then said, "Do you guys have to talk about the chunin exams?"

Shikamaru laughed. "Sorry, it's kind of a sore subject," he explained then canted his head toward Chouji, "for some of us!"

The three talked awhile longer, before Chouji and Shikamaru were summoned by their sensei's gruff voice, "Hey, you two!" All three turned toward the dark haired and bearded face of Asuma Sarutobi, who stuck his head in under the drapery. "Are you going to hang out here all day?!" he growled. "I hope you ate enough to last awhile, 'cause you've got serious training to do!"

His team cringed at the idea and gave Tomoki desperate looks. "Good luck," he muttered supportively.

Chouji slid off his stool and trudged off as if to a sentence of hard labor, followed by Shikamaru whose expression turned hollow. "What a drag," he lamented.

* * *

Having eaten, Tomoki walked and thought about the two ninja and what the Hokage had said about giving him 'latitude'. An idea occurred to him and he looked upward in thought. _I wonder if that includes getting some help? Shikamaru's really smart,_ he considered. _Someone like that having my back would be a great thing. Chouji would be good too. He was brave enough to fight that killer, Dosu, even if he did lose._ The genin wet his lips as he found a wall and started to do some light stretches to waken his still-slumbering limbs. _Sakura?_ he mulled the idea over. _Yeah! She's quick and inventive, and thinks on her feet. Or Hinata, maybe? She's nice enough, and her byakugan's an awesome power! If I'm going to be kidnapped, she could easily follow me from a distance._ He froze with a sudden realization and he nodded. _Kenshiro would come. He knows he owes me. Or Chiaki, maybe…_

For a moment, he envisioned a whole army of ninja accompanying him, but then one by one they fell away. _I don't know,_ he reconsidered. _Shikamaru's got not just one but two tough opponents to face in less than a month. I couldn't ask him to drop his training._ Even if not for that, he imagined events as they would unfold: _"Hey, guys,"_ he would say to Chouji and Shikamaru with a face a-glow with enthusiasm, _"I bought you breakfast so how about you join up with me on a super-dangerous 'B'-rank mission?!_ Tomoki replayed it in his head a couple of times to see if he could imagine that either of them would reply with anything other than a fit of hysterical laughter. _Sakura and Hinata?_ he weighed, as his hand-selected conscripts continued to vanish. _I don't even have a clue where to find them now. They're probably off training or something, same with Kenshiro and Chiaki._

He sighed as he finished his stretches, then looked toward the towering rock-cut monument of the four Hokages that overlooked the city. _Who does that leave,_ he continued, _Naruto? Yeah, he might be dumb enough to sign up for this…even though he's got to fight Neji._ Tomoki smiled, then scowled at the idea and dismissed it. The conclusion settled over him, _I guess I'm on my own again. I sure wish I had more time._

Flexing his fingers, he forced himself to accept the circumstances then started down the road to the practice fields along which, he knew, his abductors waited.

Tomoki hadn't gone far when he felt a presence. He froze and shut his eyes. "Hey, Naruto," he mumbled as he turned around and found himself nearly nose to forehead with the shorter genin.

"Hey, yourself!" Naruto barked back in his raspy tenor. He was clad in his usual raiment – orange pants and jacket, which was blue at the shoulders and with a high, white collar. His eyes blazed like sapphire flames. "How come you've been so hard to find? What, are you avoiding me or something?"

Tomoki closed his eyes as he admitted guiltily, "…yes."

Naruto's mouth opened slightly and his eyes widened as he fell back a step. His upset expression tore through Tomoki, knowing it was the last thing his friend deserved. Naruto clenched his jaw and forced a hard look in his eyes. "Why?" he asked in a voice that crested plaintively with emotion.

"I just…couldn't face you. I let a lot of people down. I let myself down, Naruto," Tomoki explained with a wince. "And I let you down too."

Naruto's yellow eyebrows furrowed. "You idiot," he spat. "Did ya think I didn't get why you lost; why you didn't use your swords?" Though his words disparaged, his voice ached with understanding. "Did ya think I was too stupid to understand? Come on, Tomoki. You don't have anything to prove to me."

Tomoki's expression squirmed as he dragged a sleeve across his brow. "Thanks, Naruto," he managed, quiet as a whisper, then stood there dumbly for a moment and swallowed. "So," he began hurriedly, desperate now to change the subject, "what have you been up to since your win?"

"Oh, yeah!" Naruto exulted. "I got this new trainer, Jaraiya. He's great, even though he's a crazy old pervert!"

"What?!"

"Yeah, yeah," the blond genin illuminated, "he's taught me an awesome summoning jutsu and how I can use my chakra to walk on water!"

"Wow," said Tomoki, startled. "That sounds great…really. Of course, you should be training hard. You've got to fight Neji in less than a month now."

"No sweat!" Naruto proclaimed as he raised both fists up before him. "By then I'll be strong enough to make him beg for mercy!" Tomoki laughed, overtaken by his friend's enthusiasm. "What about you?" asked Naruto, "'Going to the training fields again?"

"Yeah," Tomoki prevaricated nervously. "That's right…exactly. Just…going to get some practice in, you know." He made a sweeping motion with his hand then, with a lopsided grin, said, "Gotta stay sharp…get it – sharp?"

Naruto gave him a sideways look. "Uh…yeah, sure," he began guardedly then ceased and crossed his arms.

Both genin stood in uncomfortable silence. "Well," Tomoki forced himself to say, "I guess we'd both better get going."

"Yeah," agreed Naruto with a peculiar intonation as he turned, took a step and waved his hand in farewell. "See ya 'round."

"See ya," mumbled Tomoki who watched his friend go, looked skyward, then closed his eyes. He sucked in a breath to call out, but thought better of it and continued on his way.

* * *

Tomoki ran at a manageable pace as he made his way up the road that lead from Konoha to the practice fields. He felt deeply wretched for having lied to his friend. How had the Hokage put it – equating truth with respect? _What does that say about what I think about Naruto? _he chided himself. _Don't I owe him better than that? Hasn't he earned it?_ The genin shut his eyes and tried to force the subject from his mind. _What's done is done. You can make it up to him when,_ he corrected himself, _if you get back._

He continued up to the crest of the next hill, following a route he'd taken thousands of times, and saw up ahead a boxy, open-bed, pick-up truck that was pulled off to the side of the road. An old woman wrestled with a flat tire.

The ninja nodded at once with understanding -- all but certain that this age-old set-up would have taken him completely by surprise, had he not been forewarned. _Here we go,_ Tomoki thought anxiously as he approached. _Just be cool…not too friendly, not too aloof._

"Pardon me, madam," he announced himself. "Please, allow me to help."

"Oh!" the woman startled convincingly and looked up at him. "Thank you so much!"

Tomoki smiled tightly and looked her up and down. She was a bit taller than he, pudgy and middle-aged. Her round-cheeked face was smudged from hard work, and she looked back at him with deep, brown eyes. Dark hair, flecked with grey, hung from her head. "Not at all," he replied carefully as he looked around then knelt toward the tire. He took a glance, then diagnosed: "Yup…it looks like you hit a nail."

"Oh, dear," she offered and put her hands on her hips. "It makes sense, though. I passed some construction a little ways back."

_Hmm…nice little detail,_ the genin thought, then rose. "My name's Tomoki," he said plainly.

"Easy, easy," she complained with a gentle laugh. "I'm not deaf just yet. My name's Uiko, and I'm glad you came along when you did."

"'Glad to meet you," he offered.

"And you," she said with a smile, then folded her arms. The boy knelt and raised his hand to one of the bolts. "I've got a tire-iron right here, Tomoki," Uiko pointed out.

_A tire-iron,_ he mused glumly, _just what I need – another blunt-force trauma to the head._ Tomoki mugged a smile. "Keep it. I don't need it yet," he remarked slowly. When the impact he'd expected didn't come, he closed the thumb and forefinger of his left hand around the first bolt. The muscles of his arms quivered tensely for a moment and his tendons jumped, then he extended a little of his chakra into his fingertips and the bolt gave way at once, spinning almost clear of the thread.

"My goodness!" the woman pealed and stared at him in wonder. "I had no idea a boy your age could be so strong!"

Tomoki brushed aside her praise. "It's nothing," he replied. "I am a ninja, after all."

"Yes," she agreed, "I got that from your swords and headband. Still, it's amazing." She canted her gaze upwards. "I've seen you little kids enter the academy when you're eight or so, and you run around and do your little punches and kicks, and it's just so cute! Then, all of a sudden, you're not kids anymore. You're highly-trained genin with real responsibilities."

His eyes flickered. "You have a keen understanding," Tomoki observed and unfastened another bolt, this time with his right hand.

A few minutes went by while the boy helped the lady. He removed all the bolts, then used her jack to raise the truck off the tire. All the while they chatted about mundane things like the weather, where each other was from and what they had planned for the day. Tomoki then took the old tire down and replaced it with the spare, using Uiko's tire-iron to put the bolts firmly back in place.

"All set!" he piped as he pulled the retracted jack out from beneath the wagon, then secured it in a compartment behind the cab. "That should get you to where you're going."

She looked at him and smiled gratefully. "I sure do appreciate 'cha'."

"Ok," said Tomoki who smiled back. He waited a moment then went on, "I guess I'll just be going now."

"Me too." The woman nodded, then offered, "Have a good day."

"Ok," said Tomoki through a tight smile, "you too." He began to walk away. Awaiting attack, he took five paces, then ten, then twenty. _Just what is going on here?_ he thought as he cursed under his breath in mounting frustration. _I did everything right, so what gives!_ The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. _I got all worked up, all ready to go and they didn't spring the trap!_

Like a weathervane before a storm-front he turned, one-hundred and eighty degrees and marched back – five paces, then ten, then twenty. "Excuse me, Madam Uiko."

"Oh!" she startled, for real this time he thought, and raised a hand to her cheek. "Tomoki, was there something else?"

The boy frowned and rubbed a hand down his face. "Yeah, you could put in that way. There _is_ something else – didn't you _forget_ something?" he intoned impatiently.

Uiko's eyes widened, then she looked quizzically at Tomoki's stern countenance. "I'm sorry?" she ventured.

"Well, sure," answered the genin. "You did come here to kidnap me, right?" His expression was careless as his eyes searched hers. They noticed the way her pupils darted, the tension of her posture, and the tiny bead of sweat that fell along her temple. If he'd had any doubts about her before, they were gone now.

She wet her lips and smiled disarmingly. "Now, how did you know that?"

Tomoki looked at her calmly. "I'm a ninja…see," he gestured at his accoutrements, "swords and, uh…headband."

Uiko's brow furrowed and she shook her head, genuinely perplexed. "This is so awkward," she confessed. "I really don't know what to say."

"Well," Tomoki suggested, "you'd better say something to your two teammates. All this conversation we're having is bound to make them a little crazy. But you can signal them that I won't put up a fight."

"What?" she stammered then looked at him pointedly. "So…you _want_ to come with us?"

"That's about the size of it," confirmed the boy with a shrug. "I think I need a little change of pace."

Uiko, bewildered, shook her head. "I've never heard of anything like this," she grumbled. "I mean, what kind of ninja wants to be kidnapped?"

Tomoki rolled his eyes and threw his hands in the air. "What difference does it make?!" he groaned. "Did your masters tell you to find out what mood I was in or did they tell you to go and get me?"

"Well…"

"Ok then, let's stop wasting time!"

A dark figure dropped just then from the truck's undercarriage and rushed at Tomoki, tall and spider-like. Reflexively, the genin sidestepped the takedown. One arm hooked under the man's elbow while the other extended into his jaw. Tomoki then pivoted sharply and threw him, heels over head to the pavement where he landed with a thud. The boy looked at his attacker, a uniformed but unidentified ninja, and noted his bald head, stern, warlike brow and fierce, scarred face. It was a wonder that he could throw someone like that so easily, he considered. _Maybe my techniques are getting better._

The boy spun back to the alarmed Uiko and held up his hands. "This isn't necessary, you know," he prevailed.

She looked back at him, then upward in alarm. "Reona, stop!" she ordered.

Tomoki cursed as he turned and sprang away from the attack he'd known would come from the treetops. Throwing spikes struck then clattered off the concrete where he'd stood and traced his path in rapid, staccato rhythm. A kunoichi followed after them – a lithe, athletic young woman in a grey uniform with vivid red hair, who wielded a staff. She alighted upon the ground in a pose then leaped with her weapon whirling at Tomoki; his hands went at once to the handles of his swords.

Suddenly, there erupted between them a plume of multicolored smoke. When it cleared, all could see Naruto Uzumaki, standing there, blocking the downward stroke of the strange ninja's staff with two kunai knives crossed in a scissors block. The blond genin flung the end of the staff aside, spun on the ball of his foot and kicked her hard in the midsection. Reona's breath gushed from her body as she flew backwards and slammed into a tree; bark crumbling from the impact.

"Aha!" Naruto exulted as he turned toward Tomoki, with an expression and voice that burned and boomed like a fireworks display. "I knew you were up to something – hogging all the fun, like usual!"

Tomoki's jaw dropped and his shoulders slumped as he stared. After a moment he drew himself up, raised his hands and let them fall to his sides, then started to laugh. "Give us just a second, would you?" he said to Uiko, who was helping the ninja with the mean looks to his feet with unusual delicacy. The bruised warrior scowled, shouted curses and fought her assistance.

"Hey," growled Naruto. "What gives, anyway? Who are these losers?!" Tomoki grabbed him by the collar and dragged him back a couple of steps; Naruto protesting the whole way. The taller genin then leaned close to his ear and explained. "What?" gasped Naruto in wonder, "A real 'B'-rank?" He leaned aside to look past Tomoki's shoulder. "And all you got to do is go with these weirdoes?"

"Um…well, yeah, pretty-much."

Naruto gave him an eager, toothy grin. "Count me in!" It was more of a demand than a request. "Come on, Tom-tom," he began to state his case. "Missions are supposed to have teams of three, so you gotta take me."

Tomoki frowned. "What about Neji?"

Naruto mugged, then quipped, "You can take him next time."

"Very funny," replied Tomoki dryly. "You know that's not what I meant."

"Ah, come on!" Naruto cajoled. "If I'm going to be Hokage, then I gotta be able to take on challenges!"

Tomoki shook his head, but he'd already given up. "Why fight it?" he asked himself. "Ok," he summed-up jovially to his abductors, "let's go."

Uiko gave the two of them a distressed look. "Both of you?" she squeaked. "You can't be serious?"

"Think of it as two-for-one," Tomoki illuminated, "a limited time offer."

"This is crazy!"

"Well, it's either that, or we can fight."

The bald ninja stepped forward and thumped his chest with his fist. "We're not scared of you," he announced brazenly, "some puke with noodles for arms and a yellow-haired midget!"

"What did you say!?" Naruto snarled, his face red with rage as he stamped towards him. "You wanna fight, cue-ball? Come on! Let's go! Right now!"

Tomoki's cheek twitched at the insult, but restrained his teammate with a glance and an expression that reminded him of their mission. Uiko did the same with her recalcitrant soldier. "Don't stop me, woman!" he protested with a roar. The muscles of his arms and chest rippled. "I can take 'em both out!"

"Ha!" answered Naruto past Tomoki, who put his shoulder into his fellow genin's chest and dug in with his legs. "Keep dreaming, baldy-locks!"

"Cease!" Uiko shouted, which stirred some sense into her teammate. Gradually she gathered him and Reona beside her, then explained. "Remember yourselves, you two. Remember what we came here to do. It's important for any ninja to be adaptive."

Tomoki nodded then glanced again at Reona, who he noticed was strikingly beautiful, all but sure he saw a trace of tears in her eyes. "Let's try this again," he ventured then bowed. "I'm Tomoki, but you already knew that. This is my friend and 'colleague', Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto snorted and turned his head disgustedly.

The woman gave him a self-conscious smile and returned his bow, as did Reona. "My name really is Uiko…Uiko Matsuda," she began politely. "These are my fellow ninja, Reona Sato and Fugo Takamatsu." Fugo scowled and cracked his neck, restrained but unrepentant.

"A whole team, just to grab me," Tomoki observed as he picked a residual particle of eel from between his teeth with his tongue. "In a way, I'm flattered. May I ask – who are you and what is it you want me for?"

"Yeah!" piped Naruto testily. "What makes him so special?"

Uiko regarded them. "You've been real good sports about all this, but I've been directly instructed not to reveal any of that. It gets a bit…complicated." Her brow lifted as she smiled. "I guess, if you're coming with us," she teased, "you'll find out before too long."

"Sure," replied Tomoki. "Why ruin the suspense."

Naruto gave him a slit-eyed, sideways glance. "Whatever," he grumbled.

"Naruto," the taller genin couldn't help but chuckle incredulously. "Are you actually jealous about this?" He looked at Naruto who gave him a stern look and crossed his arms behind his head with careless disinterest. "Aw, come on, you got kidnapped last time. It's my turn!"


	3. At the Crossroads of Life and Death

_So…_Tomoki thought as he walked behind the others through a tunnel of whirling shapes and shifting lights _This is a 'B'-rank mission._ His expression flickered indifferently._ It doesn't seem…so bad._

After the brief introduction of captives and captors, Tomoki learned a couple of things. One, the truck was not theirs. It had been stolen and put there specifically to set the stage for a diversion. _Fine,_ he'd concluded, somewhat annoyed that he'd changed a tire for nothing. Two, they were taking him north. That hadn't meant anything to him, but seemed like a salient fact. Three, Reona possessed a marvelous jutsu.

After a brief argument with the young kunoichi, Uiko formed them into a formation, with Reona at the point, herself and Naruto walking abreast, then Fugo and Tomoki following behind. After they traveled some ways from Konoha, Reona made a complex series of hand signs as she gathered her chakra. The light faded and changed around them as they started to pass into an unworldly, spectral tunnel. When Tomoki glanced to the side, the sight of the landscape rush by in a frantic, dizzying blur made him queasy. He learned quickly to keep his eyes open and straight ahead, and to keep pace with the others. Though he was the object of their mission, he didn't doubt that what would happen to him would be bad if he strayed too far and slipped out of the jutsu's effect.

The strange group had walked for a few hours in oppressive silence before Reona wobbled and Uiko urgently signaled a stop. The world lurched sickeningly then returned to normal as the effects of the kunoichi's jutsu faded.

"Yeech!" remarked Naruto who lurched a bit and pressed both palms against the sides of his head as if it might come off.

The pretty red-head stumbled sharply and her face constricted, then she fell to the ground of this distant place she'd delivered them to and panted for breath.

Uiko walked up before her, dropped a canteen in her lap then crossed her arms. "Reona!" she sputtered angrily. "Nice work, you're exhausted and we're only half-way back! I was hoping you'd figure it out by yourself that you're not strong enough yet to manage two jutsus at once, especially since you're taking twice the number of people that you're used to. Now cut out that ridiculous disguise!" Her head snapped towards the other ninja. "You too, Fugo!" The brawny warrior strode up to her to argue, but she stopped him with a withering glare. "Do it now!" she hissed.

Both ninja glowered solemnly and muttered: "Transform," and a cloud of dispersed chakra scattered from them. Naruto gawked, momentarily breathless, then pealed with laughter, for Fugo and Reona were no more than children. Fugo's face congealed into a sour, nasty pout. He was a head at least shorter than Naruto, skinny as a rail, with paper-white skin and carrot-colored, bowl-cut hair. Reona was bigger, plain and pudgy, with mousy-brown pig-tails.

Naruto stumbled drunkenly, almost incapacitated, as he howled with laughter, doubled over with both hands clutched around his stomach. "Yeah, Tom-tom! he crowed. "I'm soooo jealous that somebody sent some kindergarteners to k-k-kidnap you!"

Tomoki winced self-consciously, then glanced at Reona and his eyes lifted.

Uiko followed his gaze and groaned then said with cold disapproval: "Unbelievable."

Upon the young girl's brow was a headband, just like Tomoki and Naruto's, except this one was brown and had upon it a metal plate that was clearly embossed with the clustered circles of the Village Hidden Among the Stones. The little girl's eyes rose toward it and crossed, then her lips trembled and she snatched it off.

"Too late now," Uiko hissed and waved her hand. "You might as well keep it on."

Tomoki turned away and made no more about it, not wanting to add to Reona's misfortune, while Naruto and Fugo set into each other with loud vengeance.

The landscape around them was considerably different from the verdant forests and rocky bluffs of Konoha. This country was fairly flat and desolate but for its covering of brush and small, gnarled oaks. The young kunoichi from the Stone Village had taken them a long, long ways. Tomoki found the effect disorienting, and wondered if this was how Naruto felt when traveling through his shadow gate jutsu.

Uiko cast a look toward the setting sun, frowned and shook her head. "And just when things were going so well," she muttered dourly. After a few breaths, she appraised the situation and reached a judgment: "All right then. We'll camp here for the night."

Only Tomoki and Reona nodded that they understood. Naruto and Fugo were still discussing the merits of the little boy's earlier 'midget' remark. Only when Naruto had run out of insults and started to repeat himself did he sweep toward Uiko to ask: "Got anything to eat? I'm starved!"

The elder kunoichi raised an eyebrow. "Well, we hadn't figured on an overnight stay, or having an extra person with us, so…"

Naruto's expression broke with dejection. "That's a 'no'," he summarized correctly. Though the two younger ninja said nothing, they too were clearly disappointed.

"I have some bread and dried fruit, and water in my canteen," offered Tomoki with a shrug, but his report drew only disdainful stares. "Ok, it's not much, but we could forage for something else."

Uiko nodded. "A sensible suggestion," she agreed then frowned, "though it doesn't look like there's much around. Why don't you see what you can find? Fugo and I will get a fire together."

"I'll go with Tomoki," piped Reona to the older boy's surprise.

Tomoki lead the way into the stunted forest, with Reona following behind. After awhile, the leaf ninja realized that his hopes of finding something edible in this barren country may have been misplaced. All academy students had been trained in survival, but where he was now seemed strange and he found himself fairly lost in it.

"So…Reona," he ventured tritely for the sake of conversation, "'been a genin long?"

She perked at his interest. "No, not long," she answered but then abruptly fell silent.

"I've never been to the Country of Earth," he tried again, this time with something he thought was more open-ended. "What's it like?"

"S'ok, I guess."

"Ah," the boy replied obtusely. "Ok…well, that jutsu of yours is pretty impressive."

"Oh!" she piped eagerly. "You think so? It's called ghost-walk jutsu. I'm a natural at it, that's what Uiko says." She paused to pick a leaf from a low-hanging branch. "I can take people a long ways in a short time – time is dilated when I do it, that's what Shin-sensei says -- I think it's really cool even though it makes most people sick, especially 'cause Fugo gets so jealous 'cause he can't do it."

"Oh, is that right?" said Tomoki encouragingly while she went on. His brow furrowed suddenly. "Reona?" he interrupted her. "Isn't Uiko your sensei?"

"Huh?" she said. "No, silly, she's only a genin."

The boy shook his head. "Well, who's leading you then?" Reona gave him a confused look. "I mean is it that Shin guy you mentioned?"

A stricken look of betrayal fell over the kunoichi's face as her cheeks flushed. "I'm not…I'm not going to tell you a thing!" she screeched.

Tomoki grimaced and held up his hands. "Hey! Wait, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he offered sincerely. "I didn't mean to pump you for information, even if that is what I did."

Reona looked back at him, still angry. "Yeah, right!"

"Really!" The ninja bit his lip. "I just thought it was weird that three genin would be sent all the way to Konoha alone to go grab somebody, you know? Listen, let me make it up to you. Ask me anything you want, then we'll be even."

"Anything?" asked the girl dubiously.

"Absolutely," the leaf genin answered.

Reona raised an eyebrow and scrutinized his face, still uncertain but coming around to the idea. "You mean, anything – anything?"

Tomoki grinned down at her. "I swear on these patriot swords that to you I shall be as an open book."

Her eyes darted left and right as she thought about it for awhile. Then she smiled broadly and asked, "Tomoki, do you, um --," she stopped suddenly as the boy's head turned sharply. "What is it?" asked Reona, but Tomoki held up his hand for silence and crept forward with slow, deliberate patience toward a scrap of brush. Though the ground was a minefield of dry leaves, twigs and clots of dry earth, not a sound issued from his effortless passage over it.

A shrill twittering rose as two grey blurs shot skyward, but were intercepted by the invisible, deadly arcs of the ninja's sword. A pair of quail dropped to the ground, headless.

"Huh," Tomoki muttered, with a trace of self-congratulation in his voice. "I never thought of swords as hunting weapons before." He shrugged, wiped off his blade then returned in to its sheath. Turning toward Reona with a cheery smile, he offered, "Look at this! We've got something to eat now."

The young stone ninja gaped at him, quivered then fell to the ground and sat there in mute horror.

"What's wrong?" Tomoki asked alertly then looked around to see what the cause of her distress was, before his eyes dropped to the two fallen birds. "Oh, are you a Buddhist, vegetarian or something?" he guessed. "Sorry, I should have warned you."

"Y-you…," she sputtered in a squeaky voice and gestured at him as the wind blew scraps of dried leaves past them. "You could have killed us, back in Konoha…just like those birds!"

"Huh?" The ninja's face went blank. "Reona, I --," he began then stopped, not knowing what to say. "That's not really my style…killing someone without a really good reason," he muttered then chewed his lip. After all, what would have happened had he not been forewarned? Tomoki declined to pursue his thought, smiled sadly then crouched down and put his arm around her. "Shh…it's ok," he ventured awkwardly as he tried to console her. "You're ok. Things turned out alright. You shouldn't get so carried away with what might have been." He looked up, then back at her. "But you knew that missions like this can be dangerous, didn't you?" He studied her young face which clearly revealed the answer. "Didn't you?"

* * *

When the two returned to the campsite, it was getting dark. Uiko had a fire going. Fugo and Naruto were on opposite sides of it, not looking at each other with great seriousness. The elder kunoichi's face lit at the sight of Tomoki's catch, then faded at Reona's pensive, shaken expression. She took charge of the night's entree, then sat Reona down and gave the girl a cup of hot tea. 

Naruto looked toward Tomoki expectantly at first, then turned back, crestfallen.

"Sorry, Naruto." Though Tomoki was deeply preoccupied, he managed to quip with a sarcastic smile, "I couldn't find any ramen."

The five ninja ate their meager meal in an uncomfortable, un-companionable silence. Fugo glared periodically at the yellow-haired genin from the leaf village and bit angrily into his piece of boiled quail. Uiko sat close to Reona, who hovered close to tears, and put a comforting arm around her.

Tomoki drank the tea his captor had made but ate little, while his fellow genin wolfed down his portion almost at once. "So," Naruto began loudly as he wiped his mouth. "You guys are stone ninja."

"Duh!" replied Fugo who glared accusingly at Reona.

Uiko sighed tiredly and answered simply, "yes, that's right."

Naruto leaned back and cocked his head. "You seem pretty old for going on missions and stuff, or is that just a disguise too?"

The woman took his observation in stride. "With me, what you see is what you get. I am an old genin and not very talented I suppose, but age has its assets too."

Tomoki gave her an inscrutable glance, while the blond ninja continued unconvinced, "Huh? Like what?"

She canted her head abstractly. "You must have had your share of missions," she pointed out. "Not all of them call for those things that young people are good at. Some call for discretion, stealth, patience…and other things experience teaches."

Tomoki turned away in disgust. "I don't see how you can say that?" he snapped testily. "You brought two kids, straight from the academy to kidnap a ninja from another village. That's dangerous enough in itself." He tossed his head then glared at her. "Such a thing…if you'd have been caught, it could have been considered an act of war! Did you even consider that?!"

"Of course I did," she hissed back. "Don't you think I know?"

"Then why?" Tomoki's voice cracked.

Uiko turned aside. "You don't always get to pick your missions. Sometimes there's no choice," she intoned gravely, "and desperation picks them for you."

"'Sounds like an excuse," the leaf ninja grumbled. "I wonder what that really means – maybe that somebody really screwed up."

"Shut your mouth!" Fugo fumed, and there was little that was child-like about his furious, enraged expression as the fire glowed in his pale face. "If we'd have jumped you like we planned, I coulda beat you to death if I wanted. I would have been easy!"

"Ha!" pealed Naruto. "That's a laugh. How were you going to do that -- on your back!? Yeah, that's right, I saw the whole thing!"

"Quiet!" Uiko exploded her feet, her eyes wide; her expression made even more intense by flickering, orange campfire. "None of you have any place to criticize! You, Tomoki," she cried and pointed at him, "what kind of person willingly goes along with their own kidnapping? Are you so tired of life in Konoha, or just tired of life!?" She turned her angry glare to the yellow-haired boy beside him. "Naruto – you're no better, you went along with him. You could've gone for help or else drove us away. What's your excuse – do you love danger so much?" She whirled now on her own charges. "And you two children – young and stupid as they come!" she raged, and her furious voice echoed in the distance. "Fugo, you ignored my signal to hold back just because you like to fight, especially those you think are weaker than you. You, Reona, you joined in rather than disappoint him."

She brought a hand to her fevered brow and gasped, "I'm the leader here; it's up to me not to get you killed! When I saw his swords and then how strong Tomoki's grip was, I knew he was a fencing master and that we were no match for him – that he would kill all three of us, and there'd we'd be, strewn over that Konoha road like so much bloody cold-cuts!"

Reona sniffled and turned away, while Fugo grimaced and said nothing.

"Becoming strong," the woman spat. "It's not worth a damn. What you all need more than anything is some damn common sense! That's what gets you back home alive! That's what keeps young pukes like you from the battlefield in the first place!" Her wild stare swept the campsite, then, as quickly as it had come, the intensity faded from her eyes like dying embers. Uiko paced back to her spot of ground around the fire and slumped down. "But what do I know," she muttered hollowly; her words punctuated by the campfire's sharp, random crackles. "I'm just an old woman who's been where you are now once. Why should you listen to me?"

* * *

All remained quiet for a long while. Even Fugo's callousness and Naruto's boisterous nature had been subdued by Uiko's unexpected soliloquy. After awhile, Tomoki excused himself and began to walk off into the night. Naruto looked after him curiously. 

"Hey!" Fugo challenged. "Where 'you going?"

The leaf ninja glanced back at him. "Escaping," he joked mirthlessly, then, knowing the boy's temperament, clarified before he could get too worked up: "Just answering the call of nature. Oh, yeah," he added indelicately, "I had eels and eggs for breakfast, so I might be awhile."

Fugo made a disgusted face while Naruto slapped his leg and laughed, "Um, yeah, Tom-tom, you just keep the details to yourself next time, ok!?"

The boy walked through the dark woodlands until he'd left the campsite far behind, then sat down and crossed his legs. The air had cooled since he'd set out and was thick now with the sound of cricket song. Tomoki took a deep breath of the untamed air that was laden with unfamiliar scents, then sang a deep, single note to center his concentration and chakra.

By the time he was halfway through his one-hundred and eight mantras, the world around him seemed to dissolve, as if it remained as an image only, arbitrary and insubstantial.

His previous forays into meditation that his mentor, Ichi, had taught him had been restful and calming. But what he experienced now was anything but. He felt anchored, like he should, but with the distinct impression that the firmament beneath him could suddenly yield and give way.

_"It is because I have such affection for you that hesitate to teach you this," Ichi had told him in a dire tone that got his attention. "When I said that your way lies down a quieter path, I didn't say how frightening a journey it could be. This method will allow you to perceive nature more clearly, by embracing it and becoming a part of it." The old soothsayer, who seemed to him then more than ever like a father than ever, had then frowned and taken a few moments before he was able to continue his explanation. "Few people have the fortitude to do this, to risk losing themselves amidst the enormity of nature that most people take great comfort in imagining themselves separate from." The boy nodded, but both knew he did not fully understand. "Most of all, be careful, because when you perceive nature in this way, it can also perceive you."_

Awareness of his immediate surroundings returned greatly sharper than before, and he seemed to him that he was outside himself. He startled a bit to learn that it was not at all barren as he'd thought, but teeming with life. Its energy coursed around him and through him but it did not belong to him; rather he belonged to it.

Though the scrub forest was dark, lit only at its edges by the crescent moon's silvery light, Tomoki could see it in his mind as if it were bright as day. Each leaf, insect or tiny animal pulsed with energy – an entire world unto itself yet only a mote amidst a vastly greater continuum.

He thrilled at the novelty of the sensation and extended his chakra.

The crickets suddenly ceased their susurrations and everything became dreadfully still. Tomoki's thoughts filled with worry at what he'd done and what this meant. At once, the songs returned in the form of a single note. The sound of it washed though him and filled him, inexplicably, with a terror unlike any he'd experienced before. The note repeated, echoing through the forest, and his concentration broke. He came out of his meditation with a jolt of panic and sprang to his feet, then looked about wildly as if phantoms lurked all around.

All was quiet once again, and the insects had gone back to their normal, broken rhythms. Tomoki's eyes darted again for threats, but found none. He staggered a step and raised a hand to his head. He was alone in the forest at night, but that was not what made him quake – it was the sense that something awaited him unseen, something that lurked just beyond his senses.

* * *

Tomoki stared lugubriously at the sputtering campfire. As small as it had become, its light was still the brightest to be found, probably in a thousand miles and had lead him back from the depths of the forest. It was its glow and radiating warmth that even now conveyed a sense of comfort. It defined here as here, and everywhere else as everywhere else and so around it everyone had gathered: Uiko, Fugo and Reona from the Stone Village, and Naruto and himself from the Leaf. 

_There it is,_ thought Tomoki, _civilization at its most basic._ He sat upon a rock, leant over and resting his elbow on his knee and his head upon his palm which pushed his cheek up almost into his eyebrow. He should be asleep, but was too troubled. Breaking from his uncomfortable pose, he laid another stick on the fire. _A small enough sacrifice,_ he considered darkly. _Is that not what we all are? Ninja in the service of our lords and countries – who would mourn our loss, who would cry out for our sacrifice if it keeps the fire lit…a fire that drives away the cold and keeps the darkness at bay?_

He rolled his eyes then shook his head, dismayed at his own sentiments. _What's happening to me?_

Looking over at Naruto, who lay curled up on his side, fast asleep, Tomoki was amazed at how calm and peaceful he looked. The impulse seized him to grab his friend by the high, wide collar of his orange jacket and shake him awake, then babble into his face like a madman with lips frothing and features boiling, about his recent terrors and misgivings. The thought of the look on Naruto's face immediately made him chuckle, and he put the idea away. _After all,_ he thought, _what right do I have?_ He looked again at the boy. _Where was I all those years, when he needed a friend...or just someone to listen, who could say something to him besides insults?_

He blew out a frustrated breath and his eyes rolled over the sleeping forms of his company. Only Reona looked back at him from where she lay.

"Not sleepy?" ventured Tomoki.

The girl brushed her cheek with her fingers, nodded, then pushed herself up. Without her ties, her hair flopped over her face in an awkward, endearing way.

The boy grinned, then asked quietly, "What's wrong?"

"I've never camped out so far from home before," she began. "I'm…kinda scared."

The genin nodded. "Makes sense," he opined, then inquired gently, "What of?"

She looked around nervously into the dark then swallowed hard. "Uiko says there's nothing out there, but then what are all those sounds!"

"Well," began Tomoki. "That's not exactly true. Really, there're all kinds of things out there, there's crickets, bats, owls, snakes, voles," he shut his eyes and his expression flickered, "even a big cat of some kind, like an ocelot or something." His eyes opened, tapped his chin then rambled, "I think that's what they're called."

Reona's eyes went wide with alarm at which Tomoki winced sympathetically. "It's not so bad," he said and gestured around them. "There's nothing mysterious about it. They're just doing the same kinds of things we do in the daytime, only at night. They're out having a look around, looking for food, a girlfriend/boyfriend or someone to play with. We're too big for any of them to want to mess with. Even if they did, we'd all protect you – Uiko, Naruto, me and…," he chanced a look at Fugo, "well, three out of four ain't bad."

A smile crept its way through the little girl's gloom. "You'd really do that for me?" she asked. "Even though I'm stone and you're leaf?"

"Of course," Tomoki confirmed surely.

Reona relaxed a bit and seemed to take comfort in his assurance. "Him too?" she gestured at the stirring, open-mouthed Naruto.

The leaf ninja chuckled then replied, "Believe it. Now get some rest."


	4. A Change in Plans

Naruto and the three stone-ninja awoke slowly with the dawn, rose reluctantly then shook off the rigors of having slept on the bare ground all night long out in the open. Seeing Tomoki still asleep, Naruto snickered and clamped a hand over his mouth to keep quiet as he crept over to him. Squatting down over his fellow genin's chest he reached for his face and peeled one of his shut eyes open with his thumb. "Hey, Tom-tom!" Naruto shouted. "'Time to get up!"

Tomoki squawked and awaked with a start, with the blond genin's mischievous, grinning face filling his vision. His arms and legs flailed while Naruto hooted with laughter. "Naruto!" the genin cried and grimaced, then grabbed his orange sleeve with both hands, planted his feet close behind Naruto's backside and bucked him off. Floating after him, Tomoki straddled Naruto's chest, slipped both hands around the inside of his collar and synched it in a tight, tourniquet choke.

The blond's eyes bugged, his face turned red, and his feet kicked for a moment before he reached into Tomoki's face and levered the pressure point under his nose until he rolled off and flopped flat on the ground, panting.

Naruto sat up, coughing a storm, and rubbed his neck. "I didn't know you were so…crabby in the morning!" he remonstrated sourly.

"You," Tomoki gasped. "Are a maniac! Why…why can't you just say 'good morning' like a normal person?"

Uiko stared at the two leaf-genin and shook her head, while Reona looked away uncertainly.

"You two are a couple of dorks," offered Fugo.

Tomoki crept to his feet, brushed the leaves and little pebbles from his long-sleeved blue shirt and shook out his grey, pocketed vest that he'd wadded up to use as a pillow. He stretched his arms and waist, then ran a hand over his bristly, short cut hair.

The sight of his would-be captors made him pause in reflection. His eyes drifted toward Reona. With her rounded face, innocent eyes and pig-tales, she seemed entirely out of her element here in the wild. Her techniques really were pretty solid, and she had some skill with shuriken and the bo-staff. And, yes, he'd felt the same way about his teammate Chiaki when their team had been assembled. Still, Chiaki, even then seemed as a scar-faced veteran by comparison.

_Huh…_he thought as an idea occurred to him. _Maybe this is a disguise too!_ He shook his head. _Well maybe not. If it is, she's sure got a jonin-level skill with the transformation jutsu._

His attention turned reluctantly then to Fugo who was gathering his belongings together sullenly in preparation for the journey ahead. _What's this kid doing on a mission like this?_ Tomoki wondered. _Walking somebody's dog, finding a stray cat…I don't know if I'd even trust him with a 'D'-rank mission._

Looking now at Uiko, he frowned in consideration. _She must have known how stupid her mission was,_ he supposed. _I guess it's just out of loyalty to the Tsuchikage than she went through with it anyway._ The elder kunoichi noticed his attention and looked back at Tomoki, whereupon he gave her a disarming smile and glanced away. _It's a miracle none of them got hurt…or that they're not facing interrogation at the hands of the Anbu. It's lucky for all of us that our Hokage had no interest in using this as an excuse for war._

A tired groan drew the genin's attention, and he turned toward Naruto who sat limply on the ground, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He yawned widely, stretched his arms, tied on his blue, hidden-leaf headband. Tomoki grinned at this and checked his gear. His stomach grumbled with hunger, but he'd exhausted his supplies the previous night and so there was nothing to be done about that.

After Reona affirmed that she was ready Uiko organized them as she had before and they set out, subjected again to the girl's taxing, yet useful, jutsu. Tomoki's eyes narrowed with a pained expression while Naruto grit his teeth and shuddered. Fugo was near to tears.

For hours they set aside their discomfort and walked through the twisted reality of Reona's ghost-walk jutsu, which somehow seemed to compress hundreds of miles down to only a negotiable handful. Tomoki had almost gotten used to it, if such a thing were possible, when it suddenly ended and they found themselves ejected back into the normal world. This time they found themselves upon a gravel road flanked by mile markers, amidst what looked like farmlands – furrowed fields subdivided by low, stacked stone walls.

"Reona!" barked Fugo with a peeved scowl. The red-head balled his fists by his side and stamped his feet. "You quit too soon!"

"Reona?" Uiko repeated with evident concern as she went to her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," answered the bewildered girl who looked around as surprised as the rest. "I mean, my jutsu just…stopped working."

The stone-ninja leader studied her for a moment then looked around warily. "Well, alright," she muttered then brushed strand of hair from her face. "Maybe it was just your chakra control. It looks like we're almost home anyway. Do you think you can continue?"

The girl straightened seriously. "Sure!" she stated. "I feel fine."

Uiko patted her shoulder. "Ok," she said, then announced to the group, "let's take a few minutes rest then we'll move on. It's not too much further."

Naruto rubbed his tired eyes and yawned. "Fine with me," he said wearily then reclined against the wall that bordered the road. "Wake me up when you're ready and not a minute -- hey, what's going on?"

Tomoki and the other ninja froze, for now there was another in their midst. The tall figure, in baggy blue and white, stood next to Uiko with his arm resting upon her shoulders – not at all threateningly, but friendly. His other arm rested causualy behind his back and his ebony face was canted upward and away at a contemplative angle. Long, dark braids hung down to his shoulders.

Fugo snarled, crouched and raced at the newcomer, but Tomoki caught his arm and brought him to a stop. "Don't do it," he urged. "This guy's serious."

A tense moment followed as the four ninja, two from the leaf village and two from the stone, watched and waited.

At last it was Uiko herself who spoke. "Hello, Sebellius."

The man turned toward her with a glorious, beatific smile worthy of Buddha Himself. "Hello, big sister," he greeted merrily.

The woman smiled tightly. "I take it she wants to see us."

"Oh, indeed!" the newcomer confirmed grandly with a nod then stepped back with both hands clasped behind him so that Uiko could explain.

The senior stone ninja turned to the four juniors and struggled for a moment. "We've got a slight change of plans here."

"Oh, really?!" hooted Naruto from where he rested. "I didn't notice!"

"'Just a little detour," continued Uiko gently, but the expression on her face was pure awkwardness.

"Are you serious?!"

The kunoichi sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Please Naruto," she began, then appealed to his companion, "Tomoki, can't you put him on a leash or something?"

Tomoki glanced at Naruto who sputtered angrily at her remark. "I've never been able to before," the quieter boy offered with a shrug. "But he's right, you know," he replied. "I mean, do you really mean to tell me that the kidnappers have been kidnapped?"

The woman fidgeted at being put on the spot, and it was Sebellius who intervened. "Kidnapping?" he commented with a sardonic drawl. "Perish the thought! You are the honored guests of the Princess in Exile."

"Oh, well!" bellowed Naruto who came to his feet, adding: "Why didn't you say so before!?" The stranger sniffed at the boy's sarcasm. "Just who do you think you are showing up out of nowhere and expecting everyone to do as you say?! Everyone else might be scared of you, but I'm not!" Tomoki tugged at his sleeve, but the blond genin ignored it and raised his fist. "And you won't be so high-and-mighty when I knock you down!"

Tomoki tugged again and spoke in his ear. "I don't think that's a good idea, Naruto."

"No?!" the ninja objected, "and why not?"

"He might not be wearing a headband or anything, but he's jonin level at least."

Naruto looked back at him then at Sebellius, conflicted. His expression hardened and his hands quaked tensely. _Here we go,_ thought Tomoki anxiously as his mind turned toward the fight to come and hoped that this visitor from the Princess in Exile, whoever she was, was not as fearsome as his recently-developed senses were telling him he was.

"Alright," Naruto relented grumpily to Tomoki's surprise. "We'll see what's up with this princess. But this getting kidnapped stuff is getting old!"

Uiko's shoulders slumped with relief while Sebellius blinked and bowed humbly. "Thank you," he said. "Thank you all. I appreciate your forbearance."

The five ninja followed their new leader across the fields, passing by teams of farmhands who waved and greeted him, and then onto another gravel road.

Naruto, still displeased at this turn, wove his way to the tall man's side. "So what's going on here, anyway?" he demanded. "Who are you, and who is this princess you're dragging us to see?"

Sebellius glanced down at him charitably. "I'll be pleased to answer your questions, young ninja," he said in a lilting accent then looked over his shoulder, "unless you'd rather, Uiko. It was not my intention to supplant you."

Uiko sighed. "If you must know…twenty years ago, Lady Acacia of the River Lands married Prince Ostrid Medea Shan, the Tsuchikage's great-grandson, and became part of the royal family. But she had a difficult and seditious nature, and when, inevitably, they separated, she was exiled to the lands and cottage granted her by her marital contract."

The six crossed to one side of the road to allow some carts, piled high with hay bales, to rumble by.

"Well," Sebellius began nonchalantly. "That's one way to tell the story."

"Ok, fine," Naruto continued. "So where do you fit in?"

"Though Lady Acacia is no longer a part of the Hidden Stone Village and cannot garrison ninja, she is allowed uchi-deshi." Uiko scoffed at this.

Tomoki ventured, "So, you're her live-in student?"

"Yes, that's right." The man turned to him and smiled. "I'm proud to say I'm senior-most among them."

"Them?" asked Naruto. "How many does she have?

Sebellius thought for a moment before he replied, "About four-hundred at last count."

The two ninja exchanged glances, then the blond genin observed, "That's gotta be one crowded cottage."

Tomoki chuckled then suggested, "And the Tsuchikage doesn't mind?"

"I have no way of knowing," said the tall ninja with a shrug. "So far, he seems content to wait her out."

As they walked along further, they saw that some of the fields had been converted into training ranges, running tracks and obstacle courses which teemed with students – a wide assortment of young boys and girls who practiced martial arts, weapons and techniques of various kinds. Wherever the group passed, the students all stopped right where they were, no matter how deeply engaged in their training they were, to acknowledge Sebellius with a deep bow straight from the waist.

Fugo turned up his pug nose with disdain while Reona's gaze never left the few feet that preceded her. "Yeah, yeah," said Naruto. "I did all that stuff too and more, a lot more, believe it!"

At the next field the group was greeted with the familiar staccato rhythm of clacking staves, where the students practiced bo-jutsu. Tomoki's eyes widened as he noticed one student who was head and chest taller than all the rest and thickly built, then did a double-take. _A giant!_ he thought, then realized, _No, that's not it_. _That guy's just older than the others._ As they drew up to them, the students all stopped what they were doing and bowed. Tomoki's eyes fixed on the big trainee, and his footsteps gradually slowed to a stop.

"What's up, Tomoki?" asked Naruto as he noticed his friend falling behind. "Hey, where are you going?"

The leaf ninja hopped the wall and started over the grass toward the big student, who remained bowed. The rest of the group now stopped too, turned and looked after him. Uiko set her hands on her hips impatiently, while Sebellius simply took a seat. Tomoki's footsteps brushed through the wild grass, sending grasshoppers and other bugs to flight in his passage. He stopped before the student and looked back for a moment at the puzzled travelers, then turned back with a smile. "Wen?" he ventured. "Is that you?"

A grunt escaped the young man. "Yes, Tomoki-sensei," he replied hesitantly.

The ninja grinned as he noticed how much thinner the storyteller seemed from when last they'd met. His hair was neat and short as well. "When you asked if I thought you could be a ninja," the genin said, then paused and rubbed his neck, "I had no idea you were this serious."

Wen hesitated for a bit before he replied, "It's been a hard road, sensei, just like you said."

Tomoki looked at his classmates, a collection of fierce, wiry, seven and eight year-olds who were disciplined enough to remain still and bowed this whole time, then chuckled sagely. "Your 'Princess in Exile' I suspect is very capable." He looked off into the distance, then added: "Please, don't call me 'sensei', Wen. I'm far from it."

"But it was you who set me on the path," Wen replied.

The boy puffed out a breath. "You needed nothing from me," he said then winced as Uiko called to him from the roadside with an insistent tone. Sebellius, meanwhile, signaled his permission for the students to resume, which they all did at once. It wasn't like Tomoki to keep anyone waiting, so he got ready to say his farewells, but Wen remained bowed to him and there was something about that bothered him and made him pause. "Look at me, Wen," he said, but didn't know why.

The young storyteller looked up and his eyes brimmed with tears. Upon his cheek was a branded scar – a single character charred into his flesh. 'Vagrant' was what it said.

The sight of it hit Tomoki like a blow. "What's this, Wen?" he gasped.

"I was hoping you wouldn't notice," Wen explained with unconvincing carelessness as he rose. "When I came to the Hidden Stone Village…well, I found out the hard way that they don't care much for people who don't have regular jobs."

"Wen," the genin's voice halted and he rested his hand on the man's shoulder. "I'm…so sorry."

The student shrugged. "Don't be…it's not your fault."

The boy's chin dropped to his chest, then he moved close and asked quietly, "Are you ok here, Wen?"

The young man's nod was slight, but without reservation. "Yes, sen --," he stopped himself. "Yes, Tomoki."

The ninja straightened. "I didn't expect to see you again, but I'm glad I did," he offered. "Take care of yourself, ok?"

Wen gave him a fleeting, genuine smile. "You got it," he answered, "and you too."

The 'cottage' of the Princess in Exile turned out to be a sprawling three-story manse whose handsome facades were adorned with fieldstone and decoratively-patterned brick, tall windows with pointy-arched tops, steeply-gabled roofs, tall, twisting chimneys, and elaborate iron gates. The two strangers from the leaf village gawked at the strange architecture that neither had ever encountered before.

Sebellius lead them over cobblestone paths through a variety of geometrically-conceived formal gardens and sculpted landscapes. While Uiko, Reona and Fugo were lead away by another disciple, the tall uchi-deshi brought Tomoki and Naruto to wait in a garden cloister bounded by towering hedges. A servant brought them fruit punch and biscuits, which they devoured almost instantly.

"Please," asked Tomoki of the servant. "Would you bring more if it's not too much trouble?"

"Yeah, a lot more!" Naruto hastily amended, then called to the servant's fleeing back: "And keep it comin'!" He puffed a breath and looked around appraisingly. "This is different," the boy remarked, with his lips and tongue bright red from the drink. His eyes followed a bird's flight to where it alighted in a high branch.

Tomoki looked up at the broken columns and cracked pediment of the pavilion in which they stood, which had been crafted to look like an ancient ruin. A 'folly' is what Sebellius had called it. "Yeah," he agreed distantly and worried his lip, drew a thoughtful breath, then looked out at the flowers and the playful topiary animals – elephants, horses and turtles.

"Did you know that guy you were talking to?" asked Naruto.

Tomoki grunted affirmatively. "I met him in Shijun, back when you got…when we were there." He paused for a moment. "I guess he wanted to be a ninja more than I thought he did."

"So what do you think is going on?"

Tomoki shrugged faintly and gave no answer, whereupon Naruto flicked his earlobe with his finger. "Ow, hey!" the genin complained with a wince. "What was that for?"

"Don't blow me off," answered Naruto sharply and pointed at the side of the boy's head. "I know you've got something going on up there."

The genin looked at him crossly then rolled his eyes. "What do think I know that you don't? he asked. "This is all as weird to me as it is to you!"

"This place, you mean," Naruto probed, "and those three stone-ninja."

"Yeah, that," Tomoki started, paused then spoke again as Naruto started to glare, "but they don't bother me that much. I mean, sure, this 'cottage' speaks for itself. It's like something from another planet." He started to pace, gesturing vaguely with his hands. "As for Uiko, Reona and Fugo, it's hard to tell where to begin with what's wrong with them. Where's their sensei? Who would send three genin, two of which have little if any experience, on what for us would be a 'C' or 'B' rank mission? It makes no sense."

"I thought that was weird," said Naruto who folded his arms. His yellow eyebrows furrowed suddenly. "Hey, wait a minute, if none of that bothers you, then what?"

Tomoki grimaced. "I don't know," he ventured worriedly as he rubbed his forehead then dragged his hand down his face, "but there's something else there that I'm just not getting."

"Ahh, you think too much!" Naruto brayed and waved his hand.

The ninja looked at him for a moment then broke into a grin. "Yeah," he replied, "probably so."

As they waited over the next hour, Tomoki paced around the garden and tried to keep his restless mind distracted. Naruto remained at the pavilion, concentrating deeply and practicing his jutsu.

He settled into a wide, horse-stance then inhaled deeply. His palms rose up along his head, drew back along his sides then extended straight out in front of him as he breathed out. After awhile he switched exercises and pressed his palms out to either side, brought them in close to his ears and pressed out again. At last, with his chakra gathered, he readied himself and bit all five of the fingers on his right hand. After making a complex series of hand signs, he dropped and pressed his hand to the ground at which a whirl of smoke arose.

Tomoki stared. "Wow…what was all that?" he asked, mystified.

Naruto beamed cleverly. "My new summoning jutsu!"

"Cool," the genin commented as he looked around. "Um…what did you summon?"

The young ninja's expression turned sour. "What do you mean?" he barked. "Can't you see?" Tomoki, taken-aback, looked up, down and around, but saw nothing. Naruto seethed and waved his arms. "Right here!" he shouted and pointed down by his feet. "Are you blind?!"

Tomoki eased toward him, looked down, then knelt. "Oh! Ok," he exclaimed with relief but then cocked his head curiously. "What is it?"

"It's a frog, dummy!"

The boy's eyes went from the small, dark shape that wriggled on the pavement to the vexed expression on his friend's face. _I really don't see how this is going to help you fight Neji,_ he thought but kept it to himself.

"It's still pretty small, right now," Naruto admitted reluctantly, "but I'm working on it."

The ninja nodded obligingly then rose gratefully as he saw Sebellius draw towards them.

"Young masters," the man greeted them with an easy smile, "Lady Acacia desires to meet with you. Would you be so kind as to accompany me?"

Sebellius guided the two leaf ninjas along winding gravel and cobblestone paths though ornamental gardens and hedge mazes to a precinct enclosed by walled planters. A number of strong-looking men and women, undoubtedly the other senior members of the Princess in Exile's uchi-deshi, were there engaged in weapons practice, light sparring and randori but they stopped the moment the three arrived.

Following in Sebellius' shadow, Tomoki frowned uncomfortably as the Lady's disciples gathered in loose lines on either side to size them up as they passed.

"I don't know who you guys think you're looking at!" Naruto announced ebulliently. "But I could take on any one of ya! Believe it!" Tomoki's expression pained as he turned slowly towards him. "What?"

Tomoki shook his head. "It's really hard to be friends with you sometimes."

At the end of the procession awaited the princess, Lady Acacia, who was not what he'd expected. She was a youthful, middle age, with straight, sandy hair, mild caramel eyes and a proud, slanted smile. Her posture was straight and confident as she stood in baggy blue pants, with a long sleeved shirt of dense fishnet worn under a tan, tailored tunic. "Welcome to the Country of Earth, young masters Tomoki and Naruto," she began gracefully in a hearty, earthy voice, then bowed. "And welcome to my cottage and its lands."

The two leaf ninja looked at each other, and Naruto delivered a sharp look. "Go ahead," he whispered.

Tomoki smiled tightly. "Thank you, Lady Acacia," he said. "We're pleased to receive your courtesy."

She regarded them with a smile. "It's an honor. I don't believe any ninja from the Village Hidden in the Leaves has ever visited these lands before."

"It is quite a long way, Princess."

She turned to Naruto and quipped lightly without even a trace of pique, "I'm sorry that you find my poor disciples so unimpressive."

Naruto froze while Tomoki's eyes darted. "Please, Lady Acacia, my friend –."

"Oh, no, no," she interrupted. "I am an uncomplicated woman, if you can believe it. And I agree with his approach if not his conclusions. There is no reason at all for him to be cowed by my students because of their appearance alone." Naruto smiled victoriously and elbowed Tomoki who glared back with reproof. "But please, I can see plainly that you both are quite strong. Would you fight with me? I would be pleased to see what curious techniques you practice in your distant village."

"Hee-hee-hee, Lady, you don't know what you're in for!" Naruto laughed and grinned as he warmed his knuckles. "I've been training like you wouldn't believe and I'm stronger than ever!"

Lady Acacia smiled back gently and bade her students, Sebellius included, to withdraw. "Oh, come now," she chastened Tomoki whose pained expression revealed his misgivings. "Think of it as a friendly contest."

The boy gave in. "If it is your wish, Lady Acacia," he said and started to unfasten his sword belt.

"Please," their host prevailed lightly, "keep them. I should hate to be thought of as putting you at a disadvantage."

The leaf ninja's eyes widened, but he took off his swords anyway. Then he looked around and made his way to one of the weapon racks set out for the uchi-deshi and selected a pair of bokken – wooden training swords.

The princess laughed. "Ah, what chivalry!" she joked. "However, it is misplaced. Like my name, I too have thorns and warn you that you should have no fear of cutting me."

Tomoki shrugged then smiled sheepishly. "Just doing my part to keep this contest friendly," he explained, "like you said."

The Lady nodded, gave him a demure smile, then looked at the two ninjas appraisingly as they began to circle her. "Ah," she began as she regarded Naruto's stance, "Leaf-style tai-jutsu." She swiveled toward Tomoki and noted his posture. "And Fire-Country Double Patriot Swords," she observed as she settled back lithely into a deep, leaning-horse stance. Her right hand floated up towards her face, palm down and fingers straight while the left settled behind her back. "I'm intrigued, but wonder how well you will fare against my Earth-Country Snake Fist," she said then beckoned, "Whenever you're ready, young masters."

Naruto sprang to the attack in a blur of orange, as Tomoki knew he would and charged too. The Princess slipped aside smoothly and pushed him past, then whirled and batted Tomoki's wooden swords aside. The boy recovered and withdrew his lead leg an instant before the woman's foot swept past where it had been. Naruto returned and struck at her with lefts and rights, but she coiled under his arms and twisted away then struck up under his chin, grabbed him under the jaw then threw him straight to the ground.

Now at her back, Tomoki jabbed with both bokken. Lady Acacia whirled around and knocked them away with her shin then lashed out with her other foot, forcing him to tuck his head and roll away. Naruto rolled back on his shoulders, put his palms on the ground and coiled his body, then sprang up and twisted, kicking at the Princess with both feet. She evaded easily, whirled low and kicked both of the boy's supporting arms out from under him.

Under pressure to attack again before she could follow up on the prone Naruto, Tomoki slashed at her but found that he could not cope with her speed and matchless fluidity. Even when Naruto rejoined the attack it became clear that she was only toying with them. She ducked inside and under Tomoki's swing, then leaped at Naruto, slapping aside his punches and seizing him by the face.

Her fore and middle fingers dug into the bony socket of Naruto's right eye, her ring and little finger dug into his left while her thumb locked under his chin. Tomoki flew at her, intent on striking her at the elbow, but her grip tightened and Naruto grunted as loud as he could and held his helpless arms out. Tomoki pulled back at once.

"I can't move very fast and keep my grip so you could probably strike me," she pointed out. "But I might inadvertently…crush your teammate's face." The genin's jaw tensed as she shook Naruto by the skull. "And you wouldn't want that, would you?" Tomoki's eyes darted; his mind recited the list of jutsu he knew – shadow gate, iron vest, transformation, spirit cannon -- none seemed an appropriate remedy. "And I know," she continued, canting her head toward Naruto, "he wouldn't want that." Tomoki shut his eyes and quivered at the sight of his imperiled friend, and he wished for his real swords. The princess chuckled. "I see chivalry has its limits, yes, but that's only reasonable. Despair no further, for I have no intention of doing him harm," she stated then pushed Naruto away.

The moment she did, Tomoki was upon her but she lashed out and poked him in the hollow of his throat. Immediately he gagged and staggered back as she came after him and dipped low. Her open-handed slap slammed through his inner thigh like a sledge and he crumbled to the ground. The genin huddled then looked up in time to see her instep rocket toward his temple, but she stopped the kick right at the surface of his skin. The displacement of the air pulsed through his skull as if he had been struck and he dropped limply to the ground.

Roaring madly, Naruto leaped at Lady Acacia with a flying kick but she dropped flat to the ground and let the genin sail over her. The princess then slid after him, pushing herself along on her back and striking up at his legs and groin with the spear of her hand. Naruto, unbalanced, retreated then gathered himself and swept his foot at her head, at which the Lady sprang to her feet and rolled away. The leaf ninja rushed after her, cocked his hips, and punched. She deflected it with ease, pushing it away at the extent of it's short reach with her palm, which then arced back to brush his eye. The woman coiled her arm under the blinded Naruto's and wheeled him into the oncoming Tomoki who had recovered enough to rejoin the fray, then delivered a pair of short, crisp kicks into his ribs and inner thigh.

Tomoki staggered back, realizing he was defenseless. His thoughts churned desperately. _What should I do? What can I do?_ The answer from his training called to him – _Relax!_ it demanded, _relax._ The boy panted for breath as Lady Acacia exploded toward him, faster than his eyes could catch. Through pure force of will, he made the tension ease from his shoulders. A calming breath seeped from his lungs and his eyes closed. Without the distraction of sight, he could feel her energy -- the great rivers of chakra that flowed within her. Her energy now was gathered, tight and coiled like a viper, intent to strike him. A moment before that energy sprang, he sensed the intent that guided it and leaned aside, only a scant few inches to allow her stabbing fingers to pass by. Reflexively, he struck upwards inside her guard with a short uppercut, and he felt the butt end of his bokken clack under Lady Acacia's chin.

She startled and stumbled back, her rhythm broken momentarily. Assuming she would expect a slash from his lead hand, he feinted, then slashed downward across her foot. The woman grunted and sprang away.

Tomoki's eyes opened again and the two exchanged glances. Lady Acacia looked down at her foot and shook it in acknowledgement of the blow which, had it been a real sword, would have cut off toes.

_Maybe…_considered Tomoki as he realized that she probably had enough chakra to resist such a strike, or at the very least limit its damage.

"Alright, Lady," growled Naruto who came forward, his chest heaving with breath, and with one hand cupped over his bleary eye, "you're pretty tough. I'll give you that." Gradually, he straightened and his hand fell away from his face to gather into a fist. "But this isn't over yet!"

Lady Acadia's eyes widened then she burst out with delighted laughter. "I see!" she praised, "The leaves don't fall readily."

Tomoki smiled at her prose. Though his body ached from where she'd hit him, compared to Kenshiro's metal element fist techniques and Esmeralda-sensei's brutal training it really wasn't so bad. He turned toward his teammate and they shared a smile then, buoyed by his infectious optimism, Tomoki closed his eyes and settled into a ready posture.

The moment he relaxed, he felt the approaching presences. At once Tomoki leaped toward Lady Acacia, abandoning his weapons and making hand-signs as he went. He landed with his back to her as scores of throwing spikes struck him across the head, chest and belly. Naruto gasped while Lady Acacia sputtered with shock and reached out for her protector. The yellow-haired leaf ninja rushed to his side but took a moment to put her at ease. "Don't worry," he advised as the steel darts dropped away from the unharmed Tomoki, "It's not what you think."

From over the top of the hedges and planted walls came ninja by the dozens, then by the hundreds! All wore slate colored uniforms and the headbands of the Village Hidden among the Stones.

"I guess the Tsuchikage is no longer content," observed Tomoki, who braced for another wave of shuriken and throwing spikes, as Naruto and Lady Acacia took refuge behind him. "Naruto, we've got to get out of here!"

"Right!" he answered as he made his hand-signs. "Shadow-clone jutsu!"

Immediately, an entire squad of Narutos appeared and rushed to circle protectively around them in an orange cordon. The first rank crouched low and drew kunai knives while the second rank launched volleys of shuriken at the leaping, charging ninja. As the oncoming army crashed into Naruto's shadow clones, Tomoki knelt in their shadows. The fingers of both hands joined and separated in complex patterns. "Shadow-gate jutsu," he intoned then seized both Lady Acacia and the real Naruto by the wrists, and all three vanished into the black portal he'd created.


	5. The Princess in Exile

Amidst a hedge-bounded garden resplendent with bright and colorful flowerbeds and playful topiary animals, sat a pavilion crafted in the fashion of an ancient ruin. The shadow of one of its broken columns darkened suddenly from deep, pale grey to obsidian black, and Tomoki – the unremarkable-looking boy with brown, cropped hair, blue uniform, and a high-collared, grey, multi-pocketed vest, stumbled from its depths. By the left hand, he pulled his fellow ninja, Naruto, in orange pants and jacket, accented with blue at the shoulders and white at the collar. In Tomoki's right he brought along a woman, Lady Acacia, the Princess in Exile, a fit, older woman in tan and blue who, until a few moments ago, had held dominion over this estate.

Naruto looked around and his piercing, blue eyes widened. "Why'd you bring us here?" he asked as he turned toward Tomoki.

The genin shrugged. "No reason," he offered honestly. "It was just the first place I thought of."

The Princess looked around her, then back at her rescuers. "That was very neatly done," she told them, and the two smiled at her appreciation. "You work well together."

"Being super-cool ninja, and saving ladies in distress," piped Naruto energetically, "is what we do!"

Tomoki grinned awkwardly at the remark, then looked up at Lady Acacia gravely. "We can't stay here," he pointed out. "Those stone-ninja are bound to find us before too long."

Naruto thought furiously for a moment until his face lit with inspiration. "Hey," he rasped. "Lady Acacia, why don't you come back with us?"

"Back?" the Lady inquired uncertainly, "Do you mean to Konoha?" She turned toward Tomoki incredulously. "Can you really take us that far?"

"Sure he can!" the yellow-haired genin assured her and Tomoki nodded. "He's gone lots farther than that."

The woman pondered for a moment then gave them a far-away smirk. "Would your Hokage really be agreeable toward taking me in," she asked with a trace of exaggerated melodrama, and clasped her hands at her breast, "a pitiful, penniless refugee?"

Tomoki's mouth fell open slightly then set firm. "Of course he would," he vowed emotionally and took hold of her arm.

Naruto grinned widely with his eyes narrowed into happy slits, then he rubbed the back of his neck. "What choice do you have anyway?"

The Princess nodded with stoic understanding. "Good point," she acknowledged. "It's not like I have many options."

"Hee-hee, right!" chuckled Naruto who said to Tomoki: "ok, Tom-tom, let's go!"

Since the decision was made, the genin quickly centered his chakra and began to make his hand signs, but suddenly bursts of smoke erupted all around them. Tomoki turned his head sharply and just barely avoided an oncoming bo-staff's lunging poke that came close enough to wipe his nose. He stumbled backward into a powerful grip that took him around the neck, whereupon he seized the offending arm in both hands, spun out of it and reaped his attacker's leg with his and sent the stone-ninja crashing to the ground.

All around the once-peaceful garden, a fearful melee now ensued. Shuriken flew; Naruto's shadow clones appeared then disappeared in puffs of smoke as the stone-ninjas struck them down. Lady Acacia flowed effortlessly from opponent to opponent, paralyzing one then another with pressure-point strikes and stunning, iron-handed slaps. Despite everything, more and more ninja came – an entire army that leaped in over and crashed through the hedges, or appeared amidst explosive puffs of blinding smoke.

Battered and beaten, the two leaf ninja gathered close to Lady Acacia as the Tsuchikage's forces gathered around them in a fearsome array.

Naruto crouched, grit his teeth and looked out into a wall of slate-colored uniforms and brandished steel. "Any ideas?" he growled towards Tomoki, who shook his head.

"Fresh out," he admitted, "you?"

Naruto shrugged. "You take the hundred on the left. I'll take the hundred on the right."

"Perfect…," Tomoki commented with dry sarcasm, "and the Princess can handle the hundred in the middle."

Lady Acacia snickered, then said, "I'll try to do my part."

At an unseen, unheard, and unfelt signal, the stone-ninja attacked en masse in a charge that matched the crashing surf of the ocean. Tomoki and Naruto, both with kunai knives in either hand, dug in and prepared to meet the onslaught of stabbing spears, slashing swords and crashing staves.

The blows never came. Lady Acacia stepped forward then dropped into a low horse stance and swayed; her hands swirled over the ground then spiraled up high over her shoulders at which the charging stone ninjas slowed then stopped like insects trapped in amber. The Princess looked at them with a bemused expression, then guided her two guests out of harms way.

"Wow…," muttered the astonished Naruto as he looked around in wonder at their adversaries' motionless bodies and captured expressions. "That's some jutsu."

Tomoki nodded and stared along with him then asked, almost as an afterthought, "What now, Lady Acacia?"

The woman turned to the frozen army then, with a gesture, suddenly released them. She held out her hand. "Stop," she said gently and the oncoming army at once complied. "Thank you, that will do."

The two leaf-ninja's expressions blanked as, one after the other, their adversaries transformed from slate-clad, stone-ninja into the Princess in Exile's uchi-deshi. First and foremost among their ranks stood tall Sebellius who smiled apologetically. As one, they bowed to Lady Acacia, rose, then rushed off, carrying their injured and unconscious with them.

Naruto's jaw dropped as he gaped in shock and stared at the retreating ninjas. "What is this?!" he cried, turning slowly as he watched them go, "Huh?!" Tomoki's eyes shut and he grimaced as he let his head fall back. "What's going on here!?" demanded the blond genin who stormed toward Lady Acacia, fists balled and yellow eyebrows knitted.

The Princess shrugged noncommittally. "Sorry about that, kids," she offered only half-contritely.

"What?" he shouted breathlessly, "'Sorry'? What does that mean?"

Tomoki let out a disgusted breath and spat. "It's a trick, Naruto," he explained tersely, "a trick."

The shorter ninja's eyes narrowed as he swiveled toward his taller companion. "What do you mean?"

"He's right, you know," Lady Acacia added casually.

"Think about it," Tomoki went on, though the admission was painful. "She learned more about us in five minutes than she would have in hours of interrogation."

Naruto's face went slack. "So that's…all it was?" he grumbled hollowly. His features wriggled for a moment then settled into an angry mask. "That's pretty low-down, 'Lady'. If you wanted to know something, you could have just asked."

The Princess frowned. "Come, come, boys," she offered. "You're starting to make me feel embarrassed."

The blond genin thrust his finger at her, red-faced. "You should be embarrassed! You should be ashamed!" he cried. "We were all ready to help you, to fight for you, and this is how you treat us?!"

"Naruto!" erupted Tomoki in a stern voice. "She got us; we fell for it. That's it." He raised his hands and let them fall to his sides. "If anyone's at fault here, it's us."

The boy looked at his fellow ninja ambivalently for a moment, then crossed his arms. "No way, Tomoki," he insisted. "A dirty trick is still a dirty trick no matter how smart we're supposed to be."

Tomoki spared him a glance, swallowed hard, then looked away.

"Naruto…Tomoki," began the Princess calmly. "Walk with me. Come on, I'll make it up to you."

Both gave her suspicious glares. "I don't think so," said Tomoki in an icy voice.

Lady Acacia stared back at them and fumed. "Will you two stop acting like a couple of old ladies!" she stormed. "Deception is a part of your world, so get used to it already!" She paced away a couple of steps, then offered in a more diplomatic tone, "Still…I regret that I hurt your feelings."

Silence fell like an oppressive pall over their garden, which was somewhat worse for wear after all the fighting. Each of the three brooded and looked off in different directions.

"Well," said the Princess after a time, "if we're going to stew about this, could we not do it as well indoors, sitting down, and with a hot meal in front of us – something more sustaining than punch and cookies?"

Two sets of eyes flickered toward her, then toward each other. "I suppose…," the two ninja grumbled together then slowly fell in behind her as she started to walk. But their faces and postures made it evident that all was not forgotten or forgiven, and it would take more than a decent meal to compensate.

"Just so you know," she revealed to them in a quiet, confiding voice, "Reona and Fugo know nothing more than what is obvious – that they were sent to locate and collect you." Tomoki looked up at her but kept silent. "Uiko undoubtedly knows more but certainly isn't going to share it with me." A quiet moment passed as they made their way through the Lady's gardens. "And since I'm not prepared to be forceful with her, then that's that."

Naruto snorted. "Why don't just use one of your 'tricks' on her?"

"A fair question," Lady Acacia admitted. "But she's been around long enough to be wary of such tactics."

"What does any of this matter to you anyway?" asked Tomoki in a stung voice.

The Lady looked off across her grounds. "It shouldn't matter to me at all…after all, it's no longer any of my concern," she answered matter-of-factly. "I was brought here from the River Lands, a far-away province, as part of a settlement between my clan and the preeminent Shan family who rule this land." She laughed and snorted. "Ha, that seems like so long ago. I never wanted to be a princess, you know, however delightful that title sounds. But," she added with a shrug, "I figured if I was destined to be one I was going to be good at it. I came to care about the people of Earth Country and the Village Hidden among the Stones, even if I could do little to affect its policies and practices." The Princess slowed her pace to allow Tomoki and Naruto to draw close.

"So when a team of stone-ninja is dispatched to abduct another village's genin, in what is clearly a hostile action, I take notice!"

Tomoki's eyes narrowed. "And just how did you know that," he inquired, making an effort to sound civil, "before you questioned Fugo and Reona, I mean? Clearly you had Sebellius intercept us."

She grinned at him disarmingly, sniffed and tapped her forehead. "Deep dark ninja secrets, my boys."

"Whatever," scoffed Naruto.

As they approached the cottage, a paved courtyard opened before them adorned with urns and marble statues. A flight of stone steps led up to a wide balcony upon which three pairs of glass-paneled double doors lead inside.

Tomoki's face pinched in thought and he stopped. "Just a minute," he said wearily, tired of his own questions. "Since you knew we were the captives and didn't know anything, why did you test us against your uchi-deshi?"

Naruto looked at him, then at her. "Yeah!" he joined in.

The Princess stopped too. "Ah, yes," she began tentatively, "at this point I hate to tell you this, but it was out of simple curiosity. I wanted to know what sort of ninja the Hidden Leaf Village produced. It didn't matter to me what you knew as much as your manner. That's why I didn't give you time to think, only to react."

Tomoki rolled his eyes and frowned while Naruto groaned loudly then bellowed, "Lady…just ask next time!"

* * *

The two leaf ninjas discovered that the interior of the Princess' cottage was as magnificent as the outside, not that they'd harbored any doubts. Their hostess took them though roomy halls where their feet padded softly over thick, woven rugs; where portraits and tapestries hung beneath patterned, plastered ceilings and glowing chandeliers. The tour lead past galleries full of plush furnishings, libraries filled with scrolls and bound volumes, and armories filled with curios and strange weapons both practical and ornamental.

Tomoki and Naruto soon forgot their resentment at being fooled and lost themselves in this mansion's delicious strangeness and opulence. They couldn't help but joke and comment on all the wonders they passed until finally the drifting scents of cooking took hold and they followed their noses.

Lady Acacia chuckled at the two as their strides began to quicken. Tomoki, seeing that they were outpacing her, slowed and allowed her to catch up. She looked cleverly between the two of them. "I can see why your masters put you two together: one's too pensive, the other's too impetuous," she observed mirthfully, then stated: "There's balance there."

The two boys looked at her uncertainly for a moment but did not correct her, then smiled and nodded instead.

"Ha, you must drive the third of your team crazy!" the Lady expounded emotionally with a heavenward gesture that drew laughter from both of them. "I've enjoyed our brief time together," she said with heartfelt warmth in her eyes, "and I apologize for earlier. You were right, Naruto, it was discourteous and a shabby way of returning your protection. At the risk of appearing overly frank, I'll just say it plainly that I like you two." She considered for a moment then smirked and shook her head. "I confess I don't understand why you've allowed Uiko and her team to take you when you could so easily overpower them, Tomoki, and I certainly don't understand, Naruto, how you came to be involved." The Lady sighed then shrugged. "But it's no great matter," she said. "I gave up thinking I have to know everything a long time ago."

Tomoki shared her smile. "Thank you for your kind words, Lady Acacia," he offered. "And…about setting your uchi-deshi on us," his head lolled back and forth, "there's no hard feelings."

Naruto, who'd nodded at first at his sentiments, looked at him sharply. "There's not?"

"Nah," he answered with a shake of his head, then clapped his friend on the back. "After all, it's not like our senseis never put us through stuff like that, right?"

Naruto's expression twitched uncomfortably as he remembered. "Um…," he began sheepishly, "I guess you're right."

Lady Acacia smiled with satisfaction then lead the way to her dining hall. "Uiko intends to take you to Castle Omphalos, the seat of governance," she informed them in a dutiful, dire voice. "I'll warn you now not to go." Her soft eyes drifted toward Tomoki as she raised her finger. "You should use your shadow-gate jutsu to go back home and forget you ever heard about that place. Dark times have come to the Hidden Stone Village, and I can't help but feel that your abduction is not coincidentally timed."

She looked back again at the two of them, who hung on her words as they walked, then laughed lightly. "You have such brave spirits and I'm sure they can't be swerved by scary stories, but please…please…," she continued seriously and her voice suddenly took on a sense of fearful desperation. "The Shan family, from the Tsuchikage on down, is an inbred snake pit – a filthy reptile house from which nothing decent can escape unaltered."

The leaf ninjas looked at her speechlessly and Tomoki nodded. For a woman with such skills and unfathomable powers to quake so at the thought of their destination gave him a moment of pause. Could he really trust her? he considered. Begrudgingly, he concluded that he could, even if she had tricked him. In plain truth, Esmeralda-sensei really had done to him things a thousand times worse all in the name of 'training'.

_This,_ he realized in a moment of astonishing clarity, _is advice I should take._ As the scale in his mind dipped toward resolution, the Hokage came up out of his memory to add his weight to the other side – the confidence he'd placed in him, the chance to wipe away all his past failures, the chance to prove his worth and become a chunin!

"We appreciate what you've told us," he ventured quietly, "and promise we'll take it to heart."

She regarded them with an understanding smile. "Sorry to tell you all that right before brunch," she said in a bemused tone. "I hope it won't ruin your appetites."

Naruto grinned broadly. "Hee-hee, don't worry about it!"


	6. Reptile House

When they arrived at the Princess in Exile's dining hall, Naruto burst in and almost leaped into a chair with barely an acknowledgement of Uiko, Fugo and Reona who were already eating, and helped himself to the fruit, breads, eggs, sliced ham, fried potatoes, biscuits and gravy.

The stone-paneled room was spacious and vaulted, with broad, arched windows and a colorful mosaic floor laid out in florid arabesques. Tomoki, to his relief, found his sword belt draped over his chair, along with a gift from his hostess – a pair of bokken.

The leaf-ninjas' reunion with their captors was an uncomfortable one, and their meal was eaten in relative silence, with their brief, forced conversations centering on the most mundane of topics.

Uiko was almost maniacal in her desire to leave. She ate little, and her stern glances urged and prodded at the others to finish quickly. Her efforts mounted to little, however, as Naruto was entirely immune to this subtlety and Fugo just plain didn't care.

At last, when everyone had finished, Lady Acacia infuriated the elder stone-ninja even further by accompanying them, along with her senior student, Sebellius, to the borders of her estate. After they'd said their goodbyes, the Princess called Naruto and Tomoki back. She looked at them both then bent down close to them so the rest would not hear, "Be careful, you two, and keep safe. Whatever happens, whatever you decide," she whispered, "know that you will always be welcome here."

* * *

Now all together again, the group's footsteps crunched down the gravel road which lead, Tomoki presumed, to the Village Hidden among the Stones. Naruto hummed absently to himself with both hands rested carelessly behind his head. He was a stark contrast to Uiko, whose features were compressed, tensed in an extremity of exasperation as she grit her teeth and cursed under her breath.

After a few miles of walking, Uiko handed Reona a scroll and sent her and Fugo on ahead. The pair of stone-ninjas quickly vanished into the swirling lights of her ghost-walk jutsu.

"Transform yourselves please," she said to the remaining leaf-ninjas with a haggard voice.

Naruto's eyes bugged as he turned toward Tomoki and the two faced each other with their right fists rested in their left palms. They then played 'rock/paper/scissors' to decide who would have to be Fugo.

The blond genin cried out and stamped his foot when he lost. "Come on, Tom-tom!" he begged, "two-out-of-three!?"

Tomoki snorted as he shook his head then made his hand signs for the transformation jutsu, becoming Reona in a burst of smoke.

"Hurry up, already," Uiko muttered at which Naruto used his jutsu and turned himself in a similar manner into Fugo.

"Nice," he complained bitterly and sneered, every bit as nastily as the real Fugo.

Before long, they reached a packed road where pedestrians and porters, sputtering trucks, horse-drawn carts and wagons rolled toward the capital, while columns of armed ninjas along with caissons full of weaponry and siege engines headed purposefully outward.

Naruto and Tomoki couldn't help but glance at the marching regiments – some were comprised of genin as young as themselves and went forth either with confident faces toward adventure or with cowed faces toward uncertainty. Others were older genin and chunin, experienced veterans who strode with grim purpose, some with eye-patches, bandaged or missing limbs, who knew full well what awaited them.

Uiko, calloused to such sights, whistled shrilly as she flagged down a wagon, at which a sullen driver pulled obediently to the side.

Naruto, disguised, stretched his leg and put his small foot up on the sideboard to climb inside, then froze. His expression locked on the driver's face and the character that was branded upon his cheek. 'Thief' was what it read.

"Fugo," said Uiko, who took him by the shoulder. "It's not polite to stare."

Tomoki frowned as he followed Naruto into the wagon. "Uiko," he pointed out in Reona's youthful voice, "it's not polite to _scar_, either."

A few hours passed after they'd set out in the back of the wagon when the gates of the Hidden Stone Village came into view. Passing under, the two masquerading leaf ninja and Uiko, found themselves in a city of rigid, straight streets, rectangular, homogenous buildings of white plaster in-filled between brown-painted columns and cross-braces, and capped with hipped, yellowish, pan-tiled roofs.

Citizens walked in small, quiet groups while menials in cover-alls swept the streets and sidewalks clean. Naruto and Tomoki looked out over the strange city which seemed so different from the warmer, chaotic precincts of Konoha.

A patrolling stone-ninja sentry gave them a suspicious eye as he passed, then stopped.

Naruto glared at the gruff man sharply with Fugo's pugnacious face. "What are you lookin' at, butt-face?!" he snarled haughtily.

The ninja's expression tensed for a moment. "Nothing," he barked back, "but a foul-mouthed little puke. Move on, and keep quiet if you know what's good for you!"

Tomoki leaned toward Naruto and whispered, "Nice work…way to sell the disguise."

The genin gave him a wide, toothy smile that Fugo could never have managed. "So who's selling what?" he said, then sat back.

The cart turned right then left, onto a broad, crowded boulevard that, unlike the other streets, ran at an angle to the grid. The spacious central median was lined with flowers and shrubs that had been trained and pruned into perfect, geometric shapes. Up ahead, the road curved to split around a towering statue of a handsome, robed man who stood with his arms out by his sides, palms forward.

Naruto lurched to the other side of the wagon. "Hey, who's that?" he asked and pointed, at which the driver looked back at him like he was crazy.

"Don't be stupid, Fugo," began Uiko with a tremor in her voice. "You know perfectly well that's the First Tsuchikage."

The small red-head looked at her then up at the statue. "Oh…right," he offered slyly. "How could I forget? First…second, I always get them confused!"

The driver again looked back, then shook his head. Uiko's mouth fell open. "Idiot," she growled with annoyance, then lectured: "For the last four-hundred years, there's only been one! One, N—Fugo; there is, and shall ever be, only one!"

Naruto shrank from her tense, insistent manner, and fell silent while Tomoki looked up ahead. Both set aside their questions, for there, rising up along the edge of a plateau, a great edifice loomed. It's faceted, windowed and balconied facades soared up over the city, reaching many stories higher than the crests of the rocky cliff faces on which they hung. Here and there, through broad openings, poured mighty streams of water which crashed down into colossal basins with a roar like continual thunder and plumes of mist that arose like smoke.

"Castle Omphalos," muttered Uiko preemptively and with reverence, "the great center of our land, and the fountainhead of wisdom and order. This is the way it has always been." Her two 'captives' looked at her curiously. "It's so easy to be impressed by its size, its height…its sheer enormity," she lectured on with quiet passion. "But the real grandeur of this place lies in time."

"Time?" ventured Tomoki. "How do you mean?"

The woman canted her head and brushed a stray strand of hair from her face. "For thousands of years, even back into pre-history, there has been civilization here. Starting with caves then primitive cliff-dwellings, each people who've lived here built over the ruins of the old, layer upon layer," she said and smiled wanly. "They must have felt like…like they could harness the power of all the efforts put forth by their predecessors." She grinned at the two young ninja, knowing she'd lost them. "Still…I've always been reassured by its presence -- an anchor in a floating world."

Their wagon rolled on awhile longer until the traffic slowed then came to a stop. All three ninja rose to their feet to look. Up ahead stood another monumental statue of some luminary, but there was a figure dressed in rags, waving his arms and pacing around wildly on its tall pedestal. The young man's head, including his eyebrows, was completely shaven, and he shouted out to the furious crowd he'd gathered beneath him.

Uiko pressed a hand against her face and slumped as she sighed.

"What's all that about?" asked Tomoki.

"What's all what about?" squealed Naruto, who jumped up and down, far too short to see.

The kunoichi's cheek twitched. "A number of disquieting things have happened recently," she explained, "I'll spare you the details." Uiko frowned and set her hands on her hips. "People have lost their minds…and their faith…and our Hidden Village has become a magnet for every conspiracy theorist, nihilist, spiritualist and nutcase in Earth Country."

Somberly, the senior stone-ninja appraised the situation. "Come on," she said then hopped down from the wagon onto the street and started to walk. "There will be no way through here until the watch comes and cracks some skulls." Naruto and Tomoki hurried after her, headed toward the ponderous walls of Castle Omphalos.

* * *

In the intimate, wood-paneled, ante-chamber of the Empress, Desdemona Shan, high up inside Castle Omphalos, the three waited. The house for the Earth Country's government was indeed a fortress, and if it wasn't for the fact that the Empress expected them, they never could have gotten in. Even as it was, they had to pass through what seemed like miles of winding hallways, steep stairways and countless checkpoints where the ninjas stationed there waited with a tense vigilance that informed Tomoki that something serious was afoot.

Tomoki, having shed his guise as Reona, stood at the window and looked out at the sprawling city below. It was indeed quite a view. He braced his arms on the sill and worried his lip as he thought. This mission the Hokage had sent him on was to gather information about his captors. Though really, he hadn't learned that much, his brain felt like it was already filled to overflowing.

A frown creased his face as he shut his eyes. He felt trapped somehow, suffocated and caught – the perilous sensation of snares closing around every limb. He drew a deep, meditative breath to try and clear his mind, but the effort brought him little comfort.

He waited now, with his friend and with his captor, for the Empress of Earth Country to see them. He suppressed a shudder at what the ruler of this strange realm would be like, but tried to keep an open mind. The only thing he was certain of was that she would not be what he expected.

Tomoki's eyes fell toward Uiko, whose countenance had fallen ghastly pale, then at Naruto who leaned back in his chair completely bored.

"So," remarked the yellow-haired genin, "you're really in trouble, aren't you?"

The woman's eyes flickered toward him. For a fleeting moment, her temper sparked, but then quickly sputtered out. "Yes, Naruto," she said, closed her eyes, then rested her head in her hands. The older woman looked at him, then asked with casual curiosity, "How long have you known?"

The genin rocked back and forth, balanced on the back legs of his chair as he pushed off the table leg languidly with his foot. "Since we met!" he informed her proudly. "When Tomoki was changing that tire and you were getting ready to knock him out I saw the look on your face."

"Ah," offered Uiko in simple acknowledgement.

"Yup! I know what somebody getting in trouble looks like," the boy illuminated and cocked a thumb toward himself, "I'm an expert." He shook his head then scratched behind his ear. "But I never ever even came close to doing anything like what you did!"

Tomoki winced, "Easy, Naruto." He looked at the woman's face and saw in it a desperation that stirred his heart toward the depths of solemnity. "Madam Uiko," he ventured, "If there's anything we can do…"

The kunoichi laughed bitterly. "I suppose you know too."

The genin smiled in sympathy. "It took me a little longer," he admitted, "until the night we camped out."

"Sure," she replied understandingly then all three looked up as a young man approached from the hall outside, peered past the columns then drew to a halt.

He was tall and young, with dishwater blond hair and droopy green eyes. "Spies," he hissed intensely as his head swiveled toward the two leaf-ninjas.

"Master Florian!" Uiko cried, rose to her feet and bowed. "Please, it's not what it appears!

The newcomer produced a dagger from his vest and sprang at them. Tomoki, taken by surprise, flinched back as the blade cut his sleeve then snatched up a chair to fend him off. The man snarled wildly and lunged at Naruto who seized his arm, brought it low, and spun sharply. Pivoting back against his wrist, the genin sent his attacker crashing to the floor, bumping hard against the edge of the table as he went.

"Naruto," remarked Tomoki with a smile as his friend levered the blade from Florian's grasp. Naruto looked back at him curiously. "That move was fluid and efficient…since when are you capable of anything like that?"

The genin grinned casually as he spun the knife into the air and caught it smartly by the handle.

"What is this!" a woman's voice roared imperiously. All turned toward a slender, matriarch dressed in a green, wide-sleeved gown, who stood at the entrance to the ante-chamber accompanied by a scowling stone-ninja and two cagey-looking bodyguards whose faces were completely obscured by bandages of wrapped cloth. "Again with this sort of behavior uncle?" she said coldly as she came forward and fixed him with a gaze of her shimmering, amethyst eyes. Florian picked himself up, nursing his wrist, then staggered back as he gaped at her in wide-eyed terror. "How many times have I spoken with you about that, yet here I find you accosting my guests!"

"P-please, Desdemona," Florian begged. "I can't go through that again!"

He flew back at an explosion of white as the woman whipped her arm out. When all was still once more, Florian hung frozen in mid-air, transfixed by hundreds and hundreds of thin, white threads which passed from the Empress' outstretched hand, through his body, and terminated in a like number of needles imbedded in the wall behind him.

Naruto's mouth hung open in shock and his blue eyes widened. "You witch!" he railed. "Monster! You killed him, and for no reason…for no reason at all!

"Naruto!" Uiko turned towards him, mortified. "You have no right to speak to the Empress like that!"

Tomoki stared completely stunned for a moment then, intent on freeing the luckless young man, dropped his hand to the handle of his sword. The Empress' bodyguard was on him in a blur and pressed him hard into the wall. His icy hands pinned the genin, one trapped his wrist low at the waist, the other clamped over his eyes and levered under his nose, forcing his head back. Tomoki shuddered as the felt the guard's cold teeth dent the skin of his throat.

Naruto hissed a breath as kunai knives leaped into his hands and he prepared to spring.

"Stop!" Desdemona commanded, drawing the boy's glance, but her order was directed at her guard. "Don't you dare harm him!"

The genin's eyes darted furiously. "Let him go!" Naruto growled menacingly. Desdemona looked at the belligerent, orange-clad boy with an expression of amusement. "I can see that you're from far away to be concerned about such a trivial thing," she commented demurely, then said as if to answer Naruto's growing anger, "But you needn't be concerned at all about your friend, he is my guest." Her guard read her meaning, released Tomoki, then backed away. "Or about poor uncle Florian; he'll be back soon enough. He is a Shan, after all."

"What?!" the blond genin barked while Tomoki wiped his neck with a sleeve. "What do you mean?"

"Please, Naruto, Tomoki, stop this senselessness," Uiko prevailed stridently. "It's true. He'll return." The leaf-ninja spun toward her; his disbelief evident on his face. "It's the Shan family's gift, their kekkei-genkai. They cannot be killed…not really." Naruto looked up in dismay at the dead, pierced body of Florian, but Uiko insisted: "He'll be back, Naruto, really. His spirit, personality and intellect will return in the body of the next child born to the Shan bloodline. He's already come back four times!"

Tomoki stared hard at her and tried to grasp what she had said. "Tra…transmigration of the soul?" he puzzled aloud.

Uiko shrugged. "Something like that."

Empress Desdemona released the tension in her threads and let the body of her uncle collapse to the floor in an inert heap. Her guards, without a word or so much as a glance, gathered up the needles and tangles of thread, collected the body and departed with it, while the other stone ninja stationed himself by her side. "Now then," she began crisply as she sat down at the little table with her hands folded in front of her. "Now that all that's out of the way, I hope, let's to business -- Uiko, I received your message." Her thin lips upturned into a grim smile. "My goodness, but we've been busy!"

Uiko looked back at her for a moment but could not meet her eyes or contain her tears. "My Lady," she gasped, "I'm so sorry! I'm to blame for all of this!"

Her disconsolation was enough to cool the tempers of the two leaf-ninjas. They exchanged glances, then picked up their chairs and joined the two women at the table.

The Empress' eyes twinkled. "Since the very first days of the Village Hidden among the Stones, I don't think there has ever been an incident like this – a genin so rash, so reckless, as to initiate her own mission."

"Yes, Empress," confessed Uiko who nodded at once. Even the two boys winced slightly as they took in the gravity of her offense.

The woman looked at her, flabbergasted. "I feel that anything I could say about the sheer, unadulterated stupidity of what you've done would only be redundant! The danger you placed little Reona and Fugo in, not to mention yourself. Had you been caught, the Leaf Village's retaliation against us would have been completely understandable."

The kunoichi nodded. "Yes, Lady Desdemona…my actions," she sputtered, "I understand that my actions are completely indefensible."

The Empress laughed mirthlessly. "Ah…words fail us at such moments." She looked at Tomoki and Naruto before returning her attention to her wayward genin. "Well, Uiko," she said and steepled her fingers. "Let me hear it. Though, of course, there can be no excuse for your disregard, I suppose there must be an explanation."

"This boy," she began, almost choking on the words, and gestured at Tomoki. "I…he, I think he can help."

"Help? With what?" wondered the Empress, who batted her eyes. "My dear Uiko…what do you expect him to do, that our own ranks of brave and loyal ninjas can not?"

Uiko fidgeted at bit at her thumbnail. "It's stupid, I know…but, I heard some of the younger genin telling this story they'd heard about a ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village named Tomoki who'd killed a horrible witch with great powers." Desdemona looked at her inscrutably, then raised an eyebrow. "And…well, I thought he might, I don't know, be able to do something about the guei."

While Tomoki glanced up curiously, a flicker fired across the so-far expressionless stone-ninja's face.

"Oh, Uiko," muttered the Empress sadly.

"I'm so sorry, my Lady!" wailed Uiko. Tears poured from her eyes. "We've been cursed…one of the foul clans has cursed us!" She fell into a fit of breathless sobs while the two leaf-ninja waited awkwardly.

"Master Tomoki, just for my edification," the Empress uttered quietly as she allowed Uiko time to collect herself, "is that story true?"

Taken-aback at being put on the spot, the boy shut his eyes but nodded.

"It seems incredible to me," replied the Empress, "though I do not doubt it, for there are stranger things by far in this world."

"I'm sorry for that display," sniffled Uiko in a trembling voice. "As a stone-ninja, it is beneath me. I've done what I've done, and will face whatever justice you see fit."

Naruto and Tomoki had already seen the Empress' idea of 'justice' and straightened tensely, but Desdemona's stone-like expression seemed to melt with pity. "Uiko…Uiko look at me," she said in a consoling voice. "I know your heart. What you have done, you did for the sake of our village. It was an aberration from your many years of creditable service, a temporary mania I'm sure brought on by the stress of wartime and so many strange events.

"I see no need to punish you. If our two guests are amenable, I will send word to my brother, the Tsuchikage, and persuade him to be lenient."

The leaf-ninjas looked up, slightly started. "It's fine with me, Lady Desdemona," answered Tomoki abruptly to which Naruto shrugged, then added: "Uh…yeah, I'm good."

The Empress beamed and set her hands flat on the table. "Splendid," she said, and beamed. "All's well that ends well."

Naruto looked at her then at Uiko, then folded his arms and made a face. "I'd never have gotten off that lightly," he grumbled at which Tomoki elbowed him.

Uiko, having suddenly been dismissed from her execution, went limp; too emotionally drained even to say 'thank you.'

"Now that that's all settled," began the Empress benignly as she turned her attention toward her two guests, "I hope you two will stay for awhile as ambassadors from the Country of Fire. We'll have Reona take you back whenever you wish."

The leaf ninjas, at a loss for any better idea, assented.

The woman gestured at which her ninja looked at her alertly. "Catullus, please show these two to the guest quarters and then to the Tsuchikage. He will, no doubt, be delighted to receive them."

* * *

Tomoki and Naruto left the Empress' offices somewhat mystified, but well aware that things could have gone much, much worse.

Unlike most buildings the two were familiar with, Castle Omphalos was not oriented horizontally but vertically. Despite its ponderous bulk, the greater part of its habitable spaces clustered along an expansive outside face while the majority of the interior was walled off.

Catullus, a chunin, who appeared to be in his mid-twenties, goateed, and shaved bald, avoided looking at his charges as much as it was possible. His pained countenance and tense body-language made it clearer than words that accompanying these two visitors from the Hidden Leaf Village was the very last thing he wanted to do.

Despite that, he, as instructed, guided them a long way through the winding, windowed corridors and twisting stairways that clung to the outside walls, to a modest but comfortable apartment that they would share for the duration of their stay. The walls were plain, plastered stone, the floor, tile, and the furnishings solid wood framing cushioned with cotton mats.

They took a few minutes to inspect its living area, small kitchen and bathroom, and then a larger sleeping porch with latticed windows that cantilevered from the castle walls and gave a thrilling view over the Hidden Stone Village below.

"Let's go," said their guide, and the gloomy tones of his voice stole the two leaf-ninjas' enthusiasm. "Come on, 'Ambassadors,' it's time you met the Tsuchikage."

"What's he like?" inquired Naruto eagerly as they walked, whereupon Catullus winced.

"Why ask me," he replied coolly. "You'll find out for yourself soon enough."

Tomoki followed along quietly for as long as he could then asked: "Is it true, what Uiko said about the guei?"

The ninja's stride slowed for a moment and he scowled. "Don't ever ask me that."

Naruto grimaced, then rasped, "Just what are you being so touchy about?"

Catullus stopped and turned fully toward them with a hateful glare. "You two being here," he reported. "That anyone, even a hopeless, old genin like Uiko, would think that the ninjas of the Hidden Stone Village need the help of a couple of Hidden Leaf tadpoles like you is a disgrace to us all."

Naruto frowned and matched his glare. "Well since she obviously thought you needed the help, maybe you should think about taking it!"

Catullus quivered visibly with rage, then blinked it away. "If the Empress had not sanctioned your visit here, it would not be your help I would take…but your lives!"

"Catullus," Tomoki intervened. "We didn't come here meaning to offend you," he said in conciliatory tone, "but we're here none-the-less. Let's just make the best of it."

The stone-ninja's eyes roved between the two. Violence was what he was disposed toward, but duty stayed him. "Yeah…let's," he grumbled.

Catullus conducted them through a number of galleries, up grand stairways and past scores of guard posts manned by detachments of twitchy chunin. A pair of stout, brass-bound doors opened and they found themselves in a broad, columned hall comprised of a long series of domed bays. Sunlight streamed in from high windows and lit up the polished marble and granite floor.

Each bay featured a pair of short pedestals on either side upon which life-like figures stood. The first was a swarthy man with long, black hair, in plated, leather armor and boots that curled at the toes. His thick fingered hands clutched a guan-dao halberd. His counterpart across from him was a woman, slender and pale, though her skin was adorned from head to foot with vine-work tattoos. Her eyes blazed wide and her lips were pulled back in a fearsome snarl.

Naruto looked back and forth at the displays as their footfalls echoed hollowly against the stone. "Kinda cool," he observed. "It's like a museum or something." He sped up so that he could take a longer look at the next pair: a warrior in flamboyant wood and lacquered-leather armor armed with a pair of short axes; and a woman in a traditional white tunic and pleated black hakima. The genin jumped up to hang for a moment at eye level, then waited for Tomoki. "This place is really something, isn't it…huh?"

Tomoki looked at him balefully and shook his head slightly.

Catullus' laugh sounded more like a hiss. "Your friend gets it," the stone-ninja muttered contemptuously. "I guess he must be the brains of the operation, and you're just clueless."

"Gets what?" Naruto challenged. "What are you talking about?"

"Go ahead, Tomoki," continued Catullus unkindly. "You must be used to explaining the obvious to him by now."

The leaf ninja's jaw tensed. "He's not clueless," Tomoki clarified. "It's just that…something as awful as this wouldn't occur to him right away." Naruto looked at him with a searching expression that his friend could not meet. "They're not fakes, Naruto," he began tentatively. "They're…they were real people. They…they've been stuffed and mounted."

Their stone-ninja guide looked at Naruto's shocked face and barked out a laugh. "Surprise!" he crowed and stretched his arms toward one of the taxidermies. "Cropped-top is right. These are the leaders, the chieftains, the shaman, the patriarchs and matriarchs of all the clans who got in our face and resisted our power. Go on! Look! This is what they've become – notes in our history books; their defeat on display for all to see."

Naruto turned away and shook his head. "You people," he gasped, "really are monsters."

Catullus chuffed. "Monsters, you say? I show you a monster!" he shouted and stormed at Naruto, grabbing him roughly by the shoulder and wheeling him toward another display on which a man stood in a cloak and long skirt woven from grass and reeds. His face was painted black and green, and in his hands he held a double-edged blade that was curved and serrated. A quiver on his back held long arrows along with an atl-atl throwing stick. "This is a monster, right here! This is a den-master from the River Lands. Now imagine an army of them, all familiar with nin and gen-jutsu rising up, unseen and unheard, from the swamps around you. Before you know it, they've cut your neck then let you drop away into their bogs to drown and bleed to death.

"You think the world is a kind place? You're a fool! You can look at this gallery and call us monsters, but I say…if anything, we're not monstrous enough, not by far!"

Catullus looked back and forth between the two genin in disgust then stamped away.

Naruto looked up again at the trophy man in the grass clothing, and his hand slowly reached up and rested on the lip of his pedestal.

"Naruto?" asked Tomoki in a halting voice.

"I'm ok," his friend answered sadly. "I'm just wishing them luck." He looked off into the domed gallery and its pairs of taxidermies that reached into the distance. "All of them."

Tomoki nodded. Though many of the peoples presented here were truly frightening, and he did not doubt at all Catullus' tale. The genin wet his dry lips and replied, "I think they'll need it."


	7. Visitations

In a waiting area paneled in red granite, the two leaf genin waited in subdued silence for their audience with the Tsuchikage. Catullus, for his part, rested against the back of his chair, arms crossed firmly, with an expression of martial disinterest upon his face.

All around them, in the scores of other seating areas beside them, waited a population of important-looking people -- generals, businessmen, agents and other factors of the Tsuchikage, whose need to see the ninja lord seemed a lot more important than the two visitors from the Country of Fire.

Tomoki let out a seeping breath as he looked up again at the monumentally-sized paintings that hung across from them: depictions of victorious Earth Country armies crushing hapless barbarian hordes. It was a recurrent theme that, now that the genin was aware of it, he found throughout – a clear expression of their host nation's oppressive philosophy.

_Let's just forget it,_ the leaf-ninja thought sourly as he sulked. His experiences in the Hidden Stone Village thus far weighed on him, and made him wish he'd stayed back in green Konoha. _A 'B'-rank mission…_he recalled with a wince_, And I just had to go. What was I thinking?!_ His brow lifted in thought. _You know what you were thinking – The Hokage himself asked you to do something, and you wanted to please him…and maybe prove something to yourself. Huh, just take a look where it's gotten you._

The hopeful idea that their meeting the Tsuchikage might be put off faded almost instantly in his mind. Empress Desdemona had put on the agenda, therefore Catullus would probably kill him if he tried to get out of it. _What did Acacia call this place_, the ninja thought back, _oh, yeah, the reptile house. She was right about that. Now I get to meet the constrictor-in-chief, the king of all the other snakes._ He chuckled to himself. _I'm sure that'll go well._

Tomoki turned his head toward Naruto to share his observations, amazed at his fellow genin's patience that he'd been quiet all this time, but found that his companion had wisely fallen fast asleep.

Hours passed as people came and went, each time facing thorough and intimate searches by the ninja lord's guards, before being allowed past the double doors that opened into his chamber.

Bored almost to the point of unconsciousness, Tomoki was sprawled limply in his seat when a strange sound tickled his ears. A man walked by just then, a figure in rags with his hands shackled and thick, iron rings secured around his ankles and neck. From these attachments, chains dangled, jingling dissonantly as he went. The boy blinked his eyes and looked up in time to see the bedraggled figure give him the faintest nod of recognition, followed by a conspiratorial wink.

As the genin's stupefied face looked after him, he saw that his slack-skinned cheek was branded. "Manciple," muttered Tomoki to himself.

"Huh?" muttered Naruto, who awakened dazedly and rubbed his eyes.

Tomoki stirred and shook the circulation back into his limbs. "Catullus?" he began slowly.

"What?" the ninja growled in a tone that suggested he speak no further.

"Who is that man?"

Catullus dipped his head toward where the strange figure was being searched and asked about his business by the Tsuchikage's guards who, to Tomoki's amazement, found nothing at all wrong with his disheveled appearance. "How should I know," he replied in a bellicose tone. "Lord Tsuchikage's got a lot on his hands -- we're at war, there's a whole village to run and a huge country to look after. He sees a lot of people. I'm not going to know them all."

"Well, sure, I didn't expect you too, but still…"

"Just shut up, will you?!"

Tomoki fell quiet, but sat up in his seat and tapped his fingers on the armrest. His eyes widened as he watched the stranger exchange bows with the guards, then walk straight into the ninja-lord's office. He stared hard and started to squirm with discomfort.

"Stop that," hissed Catullus. "You're driving me nuts."

Naruto, noticing, looked back and forth. "Tomoki," he said into his ear. "What is it?"

"There's something really wrong here," his friend replied, and with that rose to his feet and headed toward the Tsuchikage's door.

The stone-ninja guards, upon seeing another ninja from a foreign land – one clearly identified as such by the insignia emblazoned as big as life upon his headband, agitated and plainly armed, moved forcefully to intercept him.

Catullus got to him first, seized him by the collar and raised his fist to the boy's face. "You impatient little --," he fell instantly silent, compelled by the significant look in the leaf-ninja's eyes. He turned at once toward the door. "Check inside," he commanded urgently then, seeing the guard's hesitation, went to the door himself, turned the handles and pushed them in.

The scene inside made even the strongest of them pale and cringe. Lit only by a few sparking sconces, the stately chambers of the Tsuchikage had become a grisly abattoir where blood ran in glistening rivers over the stone floors and clotted in thick pools on fine rugs. The floor and furnishings were littered with broken glass, severed limbs and stray organs. In the middle of the room floated a swirling nebula which held in its arms a few pitiable souls, including one in the robes and broad, conical hat of the Tsuchikage. This indistinct form, this monster…could be nothing other than the guei – the evil spirit Uiko had spoken of with such horror.

If Catullus had his faults, cowardice was not one of them. With a terrible shout, he charged at once to his lord's aid as did the rest of the guards who were braced by his example. For Tomoki, time seemed to slow in the guei's presence. He caught his breath then threw himself at Naruto, hoping upon hope to bring him down, but it was too late. The genin sprang to join the fight and Tomoki's grasp brushed by the blue hem of his orange jacket.

"Naruto, stop!" he cried.

The spirit's spectral cloud whirled and lashed out with tendrils of angry energy that slashed the Tsuchikage's contingent of guards apart with angry sprays of gore. Only Catullus, more nimble than the rest, made it to his lord's side and tried to free him. Energy crackled from his hands – the effect of some powerful jutsu. The tendril that held his master shriveled then dissipated like a mist before the wind, and Naruto took hold of him before he could hit the ground.

The guei's tendrils snapped toward the fleeing Naruto and caught him around the waist and legs, but he was able to heave the body of the ninja lord back into Catullus' arms an instant before he was jerked back. Tomoki rushed forward, extending his chakra into his whirling blades, and the tendrils parted before them like cobwebs.

Shaken and paralyzed by the guei's touch, Naruto fell to the ground, while Tomoki stood before him and faced the monster that drew back and struck out with all its swirling arms. None touched him. They stopped, quivering, only a few scant feet from where he stood.

The spirit's arms reeled in toward its ghostly middle, whose preternatural energy intensified, then pulsed. A shockwave filled the dim room, crushing crimson-splattered furniture and scattering dismembered limbs. It lifted Tomoki up, spun and crashed him against the ceiling, while Naruto was thrown back and pinned high against the wall.

The genin let go of his weapons, which stuck there against the plaster and wood beams, and forced his hands together to make hand signs. "Hup…," he began sharply as he forced the intonation to vibrate properly though his organs. "Hum…hee…ha," he continued and gathered his chakra, culminating in a sound the air could not carry and setting loose the disruptive energies of his spirit-cannon jutsu.

The guei's unearthly glow and form dispersed, revealing the man Tomoki had seen before in shackles and chains who reeled as if from a heavy blow. Released from its force, the ninja plummeted toward the floor, hands clasping around the handles of his swords as he fell. Landing in a crouch, he sprang at the man and lashed out as he passed. A sharp ring sounded, with a note like a bell in perfect tune, and the boy's feet landed softly on the blood-smeared carpet followed by the two halves of the strange figure's iron collar that he'd cut cleanly at an acute angle.

Tomoki turned back and was not really surprised to see the man still standing, despite the thin gap that separated his head from his neck. "That was a cruel cut, my brother," the figure stated sadly. "Are you surprised?" he asked. "You shouldn't be. I'm already dead, after all."

The genin shook his head and wobbled slightly, drained from the efforts of his jutsu. "I thought the blow might dispel whatever holds you here…and directs your purpose," he explained, at which the shackled man shrugged. "And please, don't call me 'brother'."

The man frowned. "I didn't mean to offend," he ventured stiffly.

"Well, you did," Tomoki insisted as he began, nonchalantly, to pace. "I had a brother, and he's --."

"Dead," the stranger finished, turning to follow him. "Yes, I know. But we are brothers, you and I, Tomoki…in spirit if not flesh."

"Hardly," countered the boy. "But, I guess, if you're going to call me by name, would you at least tell me yours?"

The man's eyes widened strangely as he thought. "Oh," he concluded after a moment, "it doesn't matter any more. I used to have one, but it didn't matter much even then. Manciple is my name now…Slave if you'd rather. It amounts to the same thing."

Tomoki arrived by Naruto's side, eyeing Slave cautiously as the genin pushed his way to his feet. "Hey!" Naruto rasped at this unworldly adversary then swallowed hard. "What is all this? Why'd you kill all these people?"

With a vacant countenance, the lone figure stared at him. "I was their slave at one time," Slave explained and tapped himself lightly on his scarred cheek, "me and countless like me."

"So…what?" asked the ninja, who grit his teeth, "it's revenge, is that it?"

"In part," the guei affirmed, "but mostly I want what I've suffered to affect them, to matter to them in some way." His eyes lifted toward Tomoki. "You understand, don't you?"

The boy flinched, then all three turned toward the door where Catullus stood with fists balled at his sides and his face seething with rage. "The Tsuchikage is dead," cried Catullus furiously who pointed at Manciple. "I don't care if you're man or spirit; either way, I will destroy you!"

The ghost smiled grimly, curtsied, then sprang over the bodies and left through one of the chamber's other doors with the stone-village Chunin in desperate pursuit. Naruto glanced for a moment at the devastation the evil spirit had wrought, pressed his lips together, and rushed after them.

* * *

Through the twisting halls of Castle Omphalos the spirit called Manciple lead them, always a step faster than the enraged Catullus. 

"Wait" cried Tomoki uselessly. "You can't catch him; he's a ghost!"

The chase lead to a heavy oak door that was padlocked shut. The spirit passed through effortlessly, while Catullus, on his heels, landed in a stance, twisted at the waist and struck the door simultaneously with both fists – one high and one low. The door shattered into splinters before his onslaught, and he sped down into the darkness with Naruto not too far behind him.

Tomoki stopped at the threshold and shouted after them, "How come you've got to be so stupid?!" Grumbling and patting his pockets, he found a flare, pulled its metal ring and brought a bright, white, magnesium flame to life with a burst of acrid smoke. Beyond the doorway was a stair that plunged at a perilous angle. Tomoki scowled and followed it down into a once-elegant hall, which was now murky and slippery with mud; its grand spaces interrupted by buttresses and supports for other constructions, and criss-crossed by drainage and sewer pipes.

With his flare casting fierce, sharp shadows, he followed the sounds of arguing voices down another hallway that had windows before, but was now shut out completely from the light by what was undoubtedly an interior wall for the latest layered incarnation of Castle Omphalos. The hallway jogged around a series of columns, and the boy picked his way though ruins where the plaster had rotted away from moisture and neglect, revealing stark skeletons of lathe. Amidst these abandoned chambers, mold and minerals bloomed in patches. Water sweated from the walls and collected in puddles on the floor. Tomoki narrowed his eyes and could feel the vibration of the waterfalls he'd seen from outside the castle, the ones that raged though its stone heart.

It was here that he caught up at last with Naruto and Catullus, who exchanged heated words. The flare's piercing light made their shadows jump, and Naruto's orange jacket and pants seem even more vivid.

"Get that light out of my face," the stone-ninja spat caustically.

"Shut up," demanded Tomoki who cursed the both of them. "Yeah, that's right! I can't believe anyone's stupid enough to go down into dangerous catacombs with no light and no equipment after a real live ghost!"

Naruto startled then made a face. "Hey, did you just say --?"

"I said, shut up!" Tomoki shouted his frustration, and his voice echoed eerily along with the whisper of the distant, rushing water. "Did you ever think he was leading you?! I mean, did it ever cross your minds?!"

The pair looked back at him awkwardly then Catullus answered, "He killed the Tsuchikage," he muttered by way of explanation.

"And that alone should tell you how dangerous he is, besides," the leaf-ninja continued, "from what Uiko told us about the Shan, I gather that death is only a temporary setback so maybe you shouldn't take it so hard."

Catullus glared at him emphatically. "No one killed by the guei has ever come back, not even with the Shan's kekkei-genkai. That's why everyone's running scared. That's why we're trying to wipe out the remaining clans who've cursed us with these guei." He gulped as tears welled in his eyes. "Now the great master of our land is no more…the ninja lord who, over four-hundred years –. They didn't even kill him alone in the dark of night, but in bright, broad daylight in his own chamber!"

"Hold on!" Naruto blurted and grabbed Catullus by the shoulder. "'These?'," he pointed out. "There's more than just one?"

The stone-ninja fell silent and nodded.

"Catullus," Tomoki began urgently, "how many of them are there?"

"Seven," he answered reluctantly.

"What, seven!?" shouted Naruto. "Are you kidding?!"

Tomoki frowned direly. "How many have they killed?"

"Five just here in the castle…dozens in the city."

"And we have so many more to go!" crooned the voice of Manciple at which all three ninja spun toward the gaunt, branded face that looked in from the shadows of Tomoki's flare. Reflexively, the ninja leveled his light at the ghost who retreated before it.

"Catullus," said Tomoki, and the stone-ninja understood his meaning.

His fingers wove together as he intoned: "ninja art: earth-lightning jutsu." That very moment, bolts of blue and white erupted from the floor and coruscated through his clawed hands. He reached out and cast the lightning, which bowed in an arc around the dank chamber and filled it with light.

Tomoki tossed up his flare then put his fingers together in a series of intricate patterns. The glowing, chemical flame flared into a blazing sphere, which, added to Catullus' lightning, made the room burn brighter than if it was lit by the sun.

Manciple, the guei, staggered away and fell to his knees, but when the three ninjas approached him he looked up with a smile on his face. "Sorry," he offered emptily. "Not all nightmares vanish with the light." With that, he clutched at the floor, which trembled at his touch. A wall cracked then caved in before a river of mud that circled protectively around him. From it, appendages arose that coiled and struck like headless serpents.

"We're not beaten yet!" shouted Catullus who turned and found, to his dismay, that Tomoki and Naruto had fled. His stern face whitened with shock. "Hey!?" he yelled at their retreating backs, pumping elbows and the soles of their feet.

The taller of the two gestured toward a pool of black shadow into which Naruto jumped without hesitation, and the bright orange-clad boy vanished entirely. Tomoki followed quickly after him. Catullus' eyes widened with panic as the residual light in the chamber began to sputter out and he leaped madly into the darkness barely an instant before the leaf-ninja's shadow-gate jutsu closed forever.

* * *

"So what now?" asked Naruto morosely, who sat on the footboard of his bed in the sleeping porch of the quarters Empress Desdemona had given them. A breeze moved through the room, passing gently through the latticework screens. Beyond them a dark, night sky loomed thick with battlements of clouds that shut out the moon and stars. 

Tomoki sat on a couch in the open living area and looked back at him gravely. "We're out of here," he said plainly.

Naruto blinked, then his brow narrowed. "Out?" he wondered.

"Back home," his friend clarified tiredly, "back to the Hidden Leaf Village…the sooner the better."

The blonde's expression pinched. "It doesn't seem right, Tomoki. I mean, we went through so much just to get here."

The boy nodded, accepting his friend's reservations. "Whatever's going on," he explained, "these people have brought on themselves. I'm not saying that they 'deserve' it…but I am saying that this place is messed up, and we can't fix it." Tomoki's leaden eyelids fell shut. "Catullus was right about that last part anyway. Manciple killed their Tsuchikage like it was nothing, and there're six more at least."

"At least?" Naruto queried curiously at his remark.

"Seven's an unstable number," said Tomoki dismissively, then realized how he sounded. "Sorry, I shouldn't act like such a know-it-all. I didn't learn much about the supernatural beyond what I thought I'd need to beat Xiaomei."

Silence fell as Naruto considered. At last, the blond genin hung his head. "Maybe you're right," he admitted with a sigh.

Tomoki looked up at him and smiled sadly. For him to agree with what amounted to a strategic retreat, however reasoned, was a real change. "I know it seems like we should do something, Naruto," he allowed. "But really, all the Hokage asked me to do was get information about my captors…period. That was it. I'd say we've gotten it, without a doubt."

The orange-clad ninja wiped a spot of residual grime from his face with a sleeve. "I guess so."

Tomoki smiled at the surprise. It was nice not to have to argue with Naruto sometimes. "Right," he said, rose to his feet and went to a corner of the room that was deepest in shadow. He looked again at his friend and began to make his hand signs for the shadow-gate jutsu.

A knock interrupted him and both boys' heads turned. Tomoki frowned as he thought about it for a moment then paced toward the door and opened it.

The sight of their visitor made him fall back in shock, and a bland smile came over the Hokage's face at his reaction. "Good evening, Tomoki, Naruto," he greeted them. "May I come in?"

"Hey! This is a surprise!" piped Naruto who jumped toward him. "Come on in, old man!"

The lord of the leaf-ninjas entered and took the room in with a slow look around. "I must say, you've done well making it this far," he offered with a tone of satisfaction.

Tomoki, wide-eyed and rubbing his temple, stared at him – at his familiar lined and age-spotted face and clever eyes; the way his pipe hung unlit in his mouth. "H…how did you get all the way out here?" he asked in a cracking voice.

The Hokage turned toward him obligingly and laughed. "My boy, do you really think that you have a means of traveling great distances that I do not?" He smiled then and wagged his finger at him. "Your shadow-gate is impressive, Tomoki, but I have my techniques too."

Chastened, the boy sputtered mutely, then managed: "sure…of course."

"Hee-hee," laughed Naruto who came forward and threw his arms around the old ninja's waist. "I'm kinda glad to see you. This place is creepy! I…I didn't know how good things were in Konoha until I came here!"

The old man straightened tensely. "Easy, Naruto, easy!" he admonished in a good-natured voice as he patted the boy's thicket of yellow hair. "I'm not as compressible as I used to be."

Naruto released his hold then explained, "Hey, in another minute we'd have missed you. We were just about to go back!"

"Ah, yes?" the Hokage began and his face turned serious with thought. "It's good that I came when I did then, for I must urge you to stay."

"Huh?" replied Naruto. "But we've learned all kinds of stuff about the Hidden Stone Village – probably more than you really want to know!"

The man frowned. "There's more here, I'm afraid. There is a storm developing that threatens to destroy not only the Country of Earth, but possibly all the rest as well."

"A…a storm?" asked Naruto. "What do you mean; what are you talking about?"

"It's a simple matter – an age old story of power-hungry men losing control of what they've created. Both of you know of forbidden jutsus; you've heard of and have even seen them. What is at work right now is one of them, one of the most appalling ever created – a jutsu developed not to destroy enemies, but entire civilizations!"

"Wait," interrupted Tomoki with a tremulous voice. He felt ill suddenly and swayed from the pressure he felt, not upon his skin but in his mind. "Lord Hokage…the Tsuchikage's been killed, murdered; Castle Omphalos is locked down; how could you find us without being caught?"

Naruto charged up and shoved him. "Tom-tom! Give it a rest!" he shouted. "He's a big-shot ninja even if he's super-old, so of course he can sneak in. What are you trying to do!?"

The genin shivered suddenly, retreating from his friend's rebuke, but then his eyes fell on their visitor's shadow and it was not the shape of a man. Its black profiles belonged to a bigger animal by far: four slender legs, flowing manes and a singular pointed horn. Tomoki stepped past the puzzled Naruto and drew before the Hokage. He didn't stop until their noses almost touched, and he looked into the stranger's eyes which turned, under his gaze into tunnels infinitely-deep.

The genin gaped, recoiled from the sight and fell backwards to the floor. Reaching up, he pointed at the man with a quaking hand. "You…," he forced himself to state, "are not the Hokage."

Naruto glared at him. "What are you talking about, Tomoki?" he cried.

The Hokage looked down at Tomoki and gave him a lopsided smile. "You really have become very perceptive in a very short time," he offered impassively.

Naruto spun toward him, alarmed at his admission. "What?! You really aren't the Hokage!" he growled. "Who are you then?! You'd better start explaining!"

"If you knew," he intoned, still focused on Tomoki, "you would not be so eager to look into my eyes."

"Hey!" cried Naruto. "I asked you a question!"

The visitor scowled at him. "I didn't come all this way to answer your questions, only to make it clear to you what's at stake here. The guei will not stop at the borders of Earth country, but will go forth until their fearsome energies are expended."

"Is that it?" barked the genin defiantly. "Is that all you're going to say?"

"It is enough. There are rules to follow and a balance to maintain. The only reason I can reveal anything to you at all is because my counterpart has --," he stopped suddenly and fell silent.

"Has…what?" asked Tomoki in a whisper.

The stranger turned toward him hesitantly. "…cheated," he finished his thought, then spat out a breath. "To stand here, exposed to your scrutiny is a humiliation. It is more than I can bear. I've said all I have to, and now I will go."

"What!" shouted Naruto who barred his way. "Just like that? You turn yourself into the Hokage to fool us and tell us some story, and you're just going to walk away?"

"That's it," the man affirmed. "What I've told you was the truth. Thousands…hundreds of thousands will die if you do nothing, here and everywhere across the globe. Even if you act, there is no guarantee against that eventuality. Either way, I cannot force you. The choice is yours."

"Enough of this," the boy erupted, "you liar! How do we know you're not just some stone-ninja trying to mess with us? Huh? Is that you, Catullus? Is this another test, Acacia, Sebellius?!"

"Naruto, let him go," said Tomoki from where he sat. Their eyes met, and he begged, "Please."

The genin looked at him, clearly dissatisfied, but stepped aside and let the imposter pass toward the door.

"Wait!" cried Tomoki suddenly in a trembling voice. "D…did the Hokage, the _real_ Hokage, send me here…or was that you too?"

The figure stopped and turned toward him. "If I told you, you might not believe it," he answered in the Hokage's voice and familiar inflection. "Some things in this existence you must discover for yourself…for them to have any meaning." Without a word further, he slipped out into the hall and shut the door behind him quietly.

Tomoki's distraught face fell into his hands.

"Ok, Tomoki," said Naruto with a dangerously insistent air. "Who was that?"

The genin shook his head unsurely and said nothing.

"Don't give me that crap!" the blond genin barked, then said in a softer, entreating tone: "how come I always have to beat it out of you?"

"Because you'll think I'm crazy."

The genin grimaced. "I already think you're crazy."

Tomoki coughed as he chuckled. "Sure, I must have forgot," he acknowledged, then tried a couple of times to say it before he actually did, "I think it was a qi-lin."

"A what?"

"A servant in the court of…," he trailed off, unable for a moment to speak, "heaven."

"You're right…you are crazy."

"Told 'ya."

"All right, all right," Naruto gushed, at the brink of exasperation. "What do we do now, I mean, do you believe all that stuff he was saying?"

"It doesn't matter," Tomoki explained with a shrug. "And he…it, whatever it was, knew it."

"Now what are you talking about?!"

"I think he knew, before he came in that I'd see him for what he was. And he knew that as long as there was a chance that what he said was true, that I'd stay to find out." He looked up at Naruto, distraught, then rubbed his cheek. "I've been right about…um, nothing, for a long time. But I'm pretty sure I'm right about that." The blond ninja looked at him then started to pace in barely-contained frustration.

"I'm sorry Naruto," Tomoki continued with a sniffle, "but this whole mission is a fraud. The Hokage didn't send me…and neither of us is supposed to be here.

"I'm betting that you didn't figure on getting involved with anything like we've seen so far, and it sure doesn't look like it's going to get any better. Meanwhile Neji's back in Konoha, undoubtedly training as hard as he can so he can tear you apart at the next stage of the chunin exams. So, if you want, Naruto, I'll take you back." Naruto's eyes widened angrily into sapphire flames, and his chest swelled with an ominous, preparatory breath. "Wait! Please, Naruto," Tomoki prevailed and threw up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "'Yes or no', will be fine!"

The yellow-haired ninja glared at him with muted intensity, then folded his arms and looked away angrily. "No," he stated.

From where he sat on the floor, Tomoki nodded slowly. "It's ok with me, Naruto," he muttered. "I didn't want you to go this time anyway." He puffed out a breath and let his head fall back against his shoulders. "You know, ever since the day you helped me against Xiaomei, all I've wanted to do was pay you back. I've tried, but it just never worked out." Against a whispering wind, his quiet voice struggled. "Maybe I've missed my chance -- all those years at the academy, all those times when you struggled and I just ignored you when I could have helped. I didn't mean to, I was just so…preoccupied with my own struggles that I didn't see yours – pretty selfish, huh?

"Now look what I've done," he said to the ceiling. "I've brought you here – this…this kingdom peopled by madmen and ghosts, whose leaders have never feared death before, or faced the consequences of the wars they started. Some friend I am." His unremarkable brown eyes flickered toward Naruto, and he snickered sardonically. "All Neji wants to do is beat you up or tap you out!"

Tomoki pulled his knees into his chest and rested his arms on them. "This is selfish of me too, letting you stay, just because I think things seem better when you're around; that things work out better like you're some kind of orange good luck charm or something. I don't know. But I really am glad you want to stay, Naruto, thanks. You're a good friend; a lot better than I deserve."

With that, the boy pushed himself up and walked to the latticed window where he looked down at the lights of the Village Hidden among the Stones. "I tell ya, Naruto," he reported. "I don't know if I can stand another day like today. It's almost too much, you know?" Tomoki took a deep breath of the cool, night air. "Well," he advised sagely, "since we're bound and determined to stay, we'd better get some sleep. If we're going to tilt at windmills, harpoon us a white whale, or…get in a fight with eight, really pissed-off ghosts, then it'll go better for us well-rested."

Tomoki turned toward Naruto who sat with his back turned toward him. "Naruto?" he asked after him. "Are you ok?"

The genin turned his head slightly as his shoulders started to tremble. "No one…," he rasped, and Tomoki could hear the tears in his voice, "no one's ever said anything like that to me before."

The boy looked at him uncertainly for a moment, recalling that it was undoubtedly true. How could it be otherwise for the boy who carried with him the Nine-Tailed Fox, and bore its terrible legacy? Tomoki canted his head then smiled. "I guess it's about time then."


	8. Cat's Cradle

When morning came, Tomoki opened the door of the borrowed apartment without the faintest clue of what he would do next. His macabre encounter with the guei, Manciple, and then the even more mysterious visitation by a qi-lin had left him feeling unsettled – almost overwhelmed. Castle Omphalos, he found, was a winding labyrinth riddled with mysteries. There were great forces at work, and he and Naruto seemed to be caught in their nexus.

A frown creased the boy's face as he recalled the warning the Hokage's doppelganger had delivered, then startled at the sight of Catullus who waited there in the hallway, seated on his heels. The chunin glanced up at him balefully and rose. The leaf-ninja studied his countenance and could read there inscribed the abject misery that possessed him.

"Catullus," Tomoki said, betraying his surprise, then offered empathetically, "I wanted to say earlier but forgot…how sorry I am about everything."

The man nodded then grunted as tactfully as he was able to, clearly unused to commiseration from a junior. "To think," Catullus began, "our lord Tsuchikage, who began his reign four-hundred years ago, raised an empire and founded a proud ninja dynasty...," his expression went blank, "died on my watch…died in my --," he broke off abruptly, unwilling to continue. "Whoever did this to us," the ninja snarled with a fearful scowl, "will know no rest or a single painless moment!" His eyes locked on Tomoki squarely. "Do you see now?" he hissed vehemently. "I told you what those clans, the Australs, the Boreals and the people of the River Lands truly are. For all those years, centuries, we've been too soft on them and this is the price we pay!" He shut his eyes for a moment and tried to restore his proper composure, but it was too much.

Suddenly, the stone-ninja seized Tomoki and whirled him into the wall. Grabbing tight around his collar, he shoved his forearm into the boy's neck. The genin struggled briefly, before sensing that Catullus intended nothing more.

Tomoki gagged then waited as still as he could, turning his head to take his windpipe away from the force of the chunin's choke. "Do you have any idea," Catullus gasped. "Do you have any idea what it's like to bear an atrocity like this? We were all powerless to stop our lord's killer. Worse then that – you two worthless leaf genin did more to stop the guei than any of us." The ninja clenched his teeth as he started to sob. "What does that mean?" he cried. "What does that make us?"

The disconcerted boy swallowed hard to ease his throat as Catullus refreshed his grip and continued. "Uiko," the man muttered hatefully. "That stupid, old cow…grabbed you, brought you all the way from Konoha because she thought you could help us; _that you could help us!_" He jerked Tomoki's collar suddenly and so hard that the boy's headband almost came off, then stared intensely into his eyes. "Tell me, boy, and by whatever it is you revere, it had better be the truth – can you?"

It took an effort of willpower to meet the chunin's crazed look. Tomoki felt certain that if he glanced away, if his eyes even flickered, that the unbalanced man would kill him then and there. "I don't know, Catullus," he stated in earnest. "That's the truth. The reason I was able to do what little I did against Manciple was because I've trained half my life learning jutsus that work against the supernatural. But even so, I was nearly powerless. The only thing that saved us, I think, was that Manciple wasn't really trying that hard."

Catullus shut his eyes and smiled tightly. "Figures," he mumbled then released his hold. As Tomoki slumped and rubbed his neck, the stone-ninja nodded gravely then rose to his full height. "I need to be going," he informed the boy matter-of-factly, as if nothing else had happened. "I'm supposed to be guarding Arata Shan, the Tsu – the late Tsuchikage's grandson even now."

The genin looked at him askance. "Don't let me slow you down," he obliged with subdued sarcasm, as much as he dared.

Catullus' brow rose. "If you're waiting for thanks, you won't get any," he explained in a gruff voice, then paused for a moment in reflection and added: "But, considering you two leaf weasels owe us nothing, I was surprised at how hard you tried." Smiling harshly, the ninja gave a curt wave, turned and started to walk away.

Tomoki watched him go, unsure of how to feel, then: "Wait," the genin called after him. "What do you know about the other guei?"

"Not much," the older ninja admitted as he turned and paused. "I don't know all of them, leaf, but there's a Tyrant, a Diseased, and a Condemned. Slave we've met."

"Gotcha," Tomoki replied in acknowledgement. "Hey, one more thing," he asked, "where did first person get killed?"

"Plaza Lithica, just outside the castle," called Catullus as he paced away, "up top. Bode Shan was the first to go. That's where they found his body."

As the stone-ninja rounded the corner and vanished, Naruto emerged from the apartment's doorway. He yawned and stretched his arms, zipped his carrot-colored jacket and straightened his blue 'hidden-leaf' headband to properly restrain his straying thicket of yellow hair. "'Morning, Tomoki," he slurred tiredly and rubbed his eyes. "Who was that?"

"Catullus," Tomoki reported.

Naruto looked at him sharply. "Huh," he snorted. "What did he want?"

"'Just stopped by to see how we were."

"Oh," remarked Naruto in a more moderate tone, but put his hands on his hips anyway. "I guess that's ok then." The genin looked at Tomoki who stared down the hallway. "Ok," the blond prodded, "so what's the plan?"

Tomoki grinned at him glibly. "I thought we'd go see Plaza Lithica," he suggested smoothly and Naruto gave him a funny look. "It's up top," he added and pointed upward, "or so I hear."

* * *

Along a wide, concrete path, the two leaf-ninjas walked. Plaza Lithica was indeed 'up top', on the high side of the plateau whose wall was commanded by Castle Omphalos. On this side, the Castle stood only six stories tall, a far cry from it's height as seen from the city at the base of the plateau far below, but it still managed to seem imposing.

Out before its ponderous facades spread a park with clusters of trees amidst rolling, green lawns. A walkway curved through it – a perfect circle of concrete, the radius of which would probably contain most of the Hidden Leaf Village. Along it, on either side, the grounds were divided into dart-board like quadrants where colorful flowers bloomed in broad fields of vivid red, blue, purple, white, yellow and every other hue imaginable. Through this colorful landscape, five rivers flowed bounded by stone channels toward, then through, Castle Omphalos itself before they plunged down the other side in torrential cascades.

It was a striking sight even though the sky was overcast with leaden clouds and the atmosphere was blighted by black banners which hung from every light post in commemoration of the late Tsuchikage and the others who'd been killed the previous day.

"So…what are we doing here?" asked Naruto, whose initial interest hadn't lasted.

Tomoki shrugged. "I don't know for sure," he muttered tentatively, not bothering to nuance the answer. "I just thought we could look around the place where the guei first appeared." The ninja's forehead furrowed then he shook his head pensively. The weight of the qi-lin's words, a warning from the court of heaven itself, encumbered him and it showed. What he remembered most was not the words but the look in the servant's eyes which gave him in that one moment a glimpse of the infinite. "Even if their power can reach beyond Earth Country," he rasped, "I don't see at all what we're supposed to do."

Naruto's face pinched into a frown. "So you believe what that fake Hokage said?" he asked in a soft voice.

The leaf-genin sighed and shut his eyes. "I've been fooled so many times…I don't think I'll believe anything until I see it."

Naruto glanced at him then adjusted to his mood. "Don't worry about it," he advised with buoyant confidence. "We'll figure something out, I mean, we always have before."

"Sure, Naruto," agreed Tomoki who looked back at his friend doubtfully at first then made an effort to believe him.

They'd only gone a few paces further when the blond genin's face lit suddenly. He grinned widely then capered out into the flower beds.

"What…?" Tomoki stared, mystified and gestured after him. "What are you doing?" he called in a cracking voice. "Have you lost your mind?"

The ninja waded into a quadrant of orange flowers then crouched down and, in his vivid clothing, was almost invisible in their midst. "See, Tomoki!" he cheered boisterously.

The boy rubbed his face and shook his head, but couldn't help but smile. "You really have gone crazy," he offered between chuckles. "Why do I keep forgetting that? Does Kakashi-sensei trust you carrying kunai knives, or does he make you cork the ends?"

"Admit it!" demanded Naruto merrily from where he looked up; his face and toothy Cheshire-cat smile blared from the field of orange.

"I will not."

"Come on," Naruto cajoled further.

Tomoki rolled his eyes. "Ok, ok, I take it all back," he granted, then announced grandly: "You're a master of camouflage!" His laughter rang out and he stumbled away, pointing at his friend with a quaking, unsteady hand. "But only if stay in the flowers or keep your back to the sunset!"

The two genin laughed: Naruto on his hands and knees in the flowers, and Tomoki with his hands clutched over his stomach.

Out of the corner of his eye, the taller genin caught sight of figures approaching and tried to force himself serious again, realizing full-well how ridiculous they looked.

Drawing up to them, accompanied by two bodyguards, came a boy dressed in a stiff, embroidered, high-collared mourning robe. His hair was a lusterless blond and his eyes were pale blue. Though he was little taller and appeared no older than Fugo, his features marked him as a Shan and so Tomoki assumed he was in reality far, far older.

"Masters Tomoki," he offered in a mellow voice, then bowed low, "and Naruto. I'm pleased to make your acquaintances. My name is Diogenes Shan."

While Naruto picked his way toward them, grinning apologetically, Tomoki returned the boy's courtesy. "We are honored, Master Shan," he managed with some grace.

"I apologize for not greeting you earlier," Diogenes offered. "As my late brother's minister, it is my duty to meet foreign dignitaries but, as you must gather by now, we are in the midst of difficult circumstances which demand my attentions."

"What?" said Naruto incredulously as he looked the newcomer over. "Is this kid serious?"

The Shan noble blinked. "Oh, you're referring to my appearance," he guessed. "As visitors to our land, it must seem strange, but be assured I am in truth more than old enough for such responsibilities."

Tomoki ventured curiously, "If it's not too much to ask…?"

Diogenes smiled and nodded. "My first birth was four-hundred and thirty-three years ago," he explained casually. "Of course, as you see, my present incarnation is only eleven."

Naruto backed away slightly with a barely-concealed look of revulsion.

The minister made light of it. "You are, I gather, taken-aback by my clan's kekkei-genkai."

Tomoki forced a polite smile to his face. "It's…a little difficult getting used to."

"And a little creepy," opined Naruto indelicately.

"I understand. But please, I came to offer my gratitude to the both of you for how you tried to protect my brother, Aureus, the late Tsuchikage, and also for saving Catullus. His service to our village has been exemplary."

"Of course, Master Shan," Tomoki replied.

The 'boy' looked up at the grey skies and folded his arms behind his back. "I've read the after-action report. You both performed nobly." He turned suddenly toward the two leaf-genin then asked with only the faintest trace of doubt: "Tell me, Tomoki, is it true you cut Manciple's neck?"

The taller ninja nodded. "Yes," he confirmed reluctantly, "but it didn't do any good."

Diogenes frowned with a gravity no normal boy that age could have managed. "Don't make light of it," he said seriously. "It's still quite an achievement. No other ninja has managed anything close to that, not even our elite chunin and jonin." The minister cast a quick look at his guards' expressionless faces then turned back to the two visitors. "If you would, please," he invited, "walk with me."

The Shan minister, having left his guards behind, guided the two visitors from Fire Country along Plaza Lithica's circular concrete walk and then down a radian that lead in toward the center. There, before them, upon a low, flat hill, whose sides had been stepped with blocks of stone, stood a Neolithic temple – a circle of tall, dark, monoliths gathered around a large, mounded shape.

"Have you seen this," Diogenes remarked to Naruto and Tomoki as they ascended toward it. "It's the Omphalos, after which the castle is named."

The three stepped between the standing stones, ancient and cracked with age. Unlike Lady Acacia's follies, the antiquity of this place was genuine and indisputable. At the center was a large, rounded stone carved all over with arabesques.

"Omphalos, huh?" said Naruto, who studied it suspiciously. "What is that, anyway? I thought it was just a name."

Diogenes smiled. "This stone marks the point around which the world was created, and forms a seal over a conduit that runs between realms of existence." The two genin looked at him doubtfully, Naruto much more so than Tomoki. The minister gestured abstractly. "Well, I don't mean really, that's just what legend holds. In any case, it's quite old and dates back to the earliest human habitations here in Earth Country." Tomoki looked at him and nodded, then all three exchanged 'my, isn't that interesting' expressions, until the minister's brow narrowed and he asked: "May I speak freely?"

Tomoki waved his hand. "Of course."

"I'm mystified by your arrival here in the Hidden Stone Village," Diogenes confessed. "It comes at such a terrible time, and no one seems to know any details." He frowned tensely then acquiesced. "Perhaps it's not important. Here you are and that's all that matters."

Tomoki studied the boy's face, and the dichotomy between his young visage and his ages-old manner. "Never before have we been faced with such horror," Diogenes continued, "these monsters, these guei. For so long I supposed my younger brother to be practically invincible but now he's dead, just like that. Unlike all the other times over his ten lifetimes, when he'd die and then be reborn and we'd plod through his difficult infancies with regents and nurses, this time he will not be coming back."

The Shan paced around the curious-looking stone, the Omphalos, and cupped his hands together as he wrestled with his emotions. "So far, you are the only ones who've even dulled a ghost's rampage and so I wish to extend an offer. If you will assist us against the guei," he stated with a gravity that riveted the attention of the two ninjas, "then all you have to do is name what you wish and it shall be yours."

Tomoki blinked at him inscrutably then blew out a breath. "Okay," he began blithely. "'Sounds good. Naruto and I'll kill all the guei, take our wagon-loads of gold back to Konoha, and everything here can return to the way it's always been."

Naruto's eyes widened at the sarcasm while the boyish Shan grimaced. "Your disdain for our plight is incomprehensible," Diogenes grumbled, "as it is unseemly."

Tomoki met his gaze. "Did you really think your problems would be so easily solved?" he inquired pointedly then turned away. "Manciple talked to me. He gave me the idea that you've brought this on yourself, and he's got a brand on his cheek like so many people around here do."

"The brands," said Diogenes dismissively. "You make too much of them. I don't know what that guei suggested, but they're a necessary and important expression of our system of justice."

Tomoki looked at him sourly. "Small wonder that the outlying clans would rather fight than live under that system."

The minister shook his head. "You understand nothing, genin," he countered tiredly. "Like all your kind, you lack the perspective to think long term --."

"Because I'm young, you mean; because I'm only a genin and will live only one lifetime?" interjected the leaf-ninja snidely. "I think I understand perfectly: it's you who've lost perspective. Living so long and safe here in your castle, you don't understand that for everyone else in the world life is short and precious. Look at you, still alive and young after four-hundred years!" The ninja marched toward his host, who seemed only now to realize that Tomoki towered over him. "If you Shan had only one life to live, you would have made peace a long time ago!" On the brink of losing control of himself, Tomoki drew back. "And look what you've become: you send your men, women and children off to die without even a thought --."

"Yeah!" Naruto added stridently, having held himself silent thus far, and raised his fist. "And you've got dead bodies lined up like so many stuffed animals in your hallways. What's wrong with you people?!"

"And you say we don't understand?" continued Tomoki.

A wind blew, rustled through the distant treetops and over the tops of the temple's stone monoliths.

Diogenes Shan drew a weary breath. "I won't deny the apparent validity of your observations," the minister seemed to admit. "But surely you are aware of how war brings out the worst in both people and countries. I assure you that we have acted appropriately and done no more that what is called for under the circumstances. If we have gone to extremes in some cases, they were only in efforts to bring these protracted conflicts to a conclusion."

Tomoki tossed his head absently. "I didn't expect to change your mind," he said. "But however you look at it, there will be no quick fix." The young ninja's expression pained as he puffed out a breath, then went on, "Having said all that, we will do what we can."

The minister's surprise seemed genuine to his biological age. "I realize that I should simply express my appreciation and leave it at that," he admitted in a tone that approached humility, "but I'm curious now as to why. From what you've said, you hardly seem inclined towards us."

"I'm not," Tomoki stated plainly. "But there are a lot of people getting killed…and I think it's possible that the guei will live on long after your wars are over, whoever wins."

These last words fell upon the minister like a stunning blow. "Young masters," began Diogenes who chuckled with disbelief, "our situation may be serious, but is hardly that dire." He looked again at the two visitors from Fire Country with an amused expression. "I think you've missed the spirit and resolve of the people of Earth Country. Allow me to explain: A very long time ago, our people settled this place of falling water and jutting stone, holding true to the belief that is was our destiny to found a civilization here. Though the land was bleak, the seasons often intemperate, and that barbarians compassed us on all sides, still we persevered. We cleared, plowed and tended the land until it was fruitful. We built houses to shelter us from the elements; and to those who plotted our destruction, we sent forth armies to discourage. Our empire has survived for a long time, and we will survive this," the minister concluded with a certain grin. "It is written in the earth." Pleased with his clarification, and receiving no rebuttal from Tomoki or Naruto, the minister bowed to them. "I meant what I said, young masters. If you help see us through these times of trouble, you will be well rewarded."

Tomoki folded his arms and watched him go, then turned to Naruto once he was well out of earshot. "So, what do you think?" he asked.

The boy's yellow eyebrows rose. "What are you asking me for?"

"Because I want to know, why else?" returned Tomoki, who added with a sly grin: "are _you_ going to make me beat it out of you?"

"Very funny," Naruto grumbled then rested his back against one of the monoliths. "Ok, he's crazy; that's what I think."

The genin nodded somberly. "Yeah, that's what I got too."

"Oh yeah?" returned the blond with surprise.

Tomoki canted his head. "Do you remember what Lady Acacia said about Castle Omphalos?" Naruto shook his head, but Tomoki inferred that he did so only because he wanted him to go on. "She called it an 'inbred reptile-house'. At the time, I thought she said that just to be insulting, or maybe out of bitterness."

Naruto blinked then his mouth fell open. "Oh, wait!" he exclaimed. "You mean…?"

"It explains some things," asserted Tomoki as he worried his lip, "don't you think?" Naruto stared across the standing stones and ran a hand through his mop of bright hair while his friend continued, "That immortality trick of theirs runs only through the Shan bloodline – that's four-hundred years plus however long it took to develop."

"Wait a minute," said Naruto after a moment of thought, "there're lots of clans out there with kekkei-genkai, and they're not, you know." He put his forefinger near his temple and made circling motions. "And anyway, if guys like that Diogenes get reborn into new bodies, then what does it matter what the body is like?"

"Good point," acknowledged Tomoki after a moment. "I don't know. Maybe you can't separate spirit from flesh like that. Maybe it's not as simple as Uiko made it sound."

Naruto pushed himself off the ancient stone and started to pace. "They're a strange bunch; that's for sure," he asserted. "Florian was crazy," he recalled and looked hard at Tomoki, "and Desdemona killed him like it was nothing! And that guy Diogenes really had a screw loose!"

Tomoki nodded. "I can't pretend I understand any of it, Naruto, not really. But no matter how their kekkei-genkai works, the Shan don't get how serious things are. To get rid of the guei, they're willing to send more soldiers out to fight or pay us whatever we want, but they're not willing to change." He closed his eyes and rubbed his face. "Maybe it's a side-effect of their blood-gift. Four centuries is plenty of time to get set in your ways," the ninja pointed out, then looked at Naruto squarely, "even if those ways lead to oblivion."

* * *

Naruto and Tomoki left the temple at the center of Plaza Lithica feeling even more disconcerted and oppressed by their mission. Walking in silence, the pair headed down one of the park's radians, crossed an arched bridge over one of the rivers and arrived back on the circular walkway.

As they followed it around, Tomoki tried to put aside his misgivings and still his racing thoughts. All around him he could feel energies pulse and flow but was far from certain if that was the reality or only a sensation brought forth by his anxious mind. Obeying an impulse, he turned up the next radian then out across the grass along the flower beds. Though far from a meditative state, the genin felt again the sense of something unseen, waxing and waning, swirling in invisible vortices.

Tomoki looked at Naruto who looked back at him like he was about to have him involuntarily committed. He grinned sheepishly, knowing he couldn't make sense of what he was about to do, and instead prevailed on Naruto to trust him.

The genin then closed his eyes and wandered, abandoning volition and self. He moved or paused only when intuition urged him, and when he stopped it was as if he'd been deposited there by the wind like a leaf or seed. Tomoki opened his eyes, stirred but a little disconcerted by the experience, and saw before him a plot of bare earth – a quadrant that had been left deliberately vacant between two blooming flower beds. He looked at the grass around him and beneath his feet, the surrounding trees and the swirling grey clouds above, then squatted down and tried to clear his mind.

"Naruto," began Tomoki hesitantly as he endeavored to explain. "This could take awhile, but I think it's important."

"More weird stuff, huh?" the orange ninja replied dourly, then crossed his arms.

"Um…," he said, and thought furiously to clarify but gave up, "yeah, basically. It's hard to put into words, Naruto, but I just…have this feeling that by the time I'm done I'll have the insight we need to move forward."

Naruto gave him a cool look and shrugged. "Ok, whatever," he replied tersely.

Tomoki worried his lip. Waiting was not something that Naruto's nature could endure easily. The yellow-haired genin was anxious, restive, driven and could bear literally anything as long as he was _doing_ something. "Um, Naruto," offered Tomoki after a little consideration. "You could go and, uh, reconnoiter the town, maybe?"

Naruto glanced at him skeptically, whereupon Tomoki expanded, "I mean, we've spent a lot of time inside the castle, but not much in the Hidden Stone Village itself, you know."

"Do you think it would do any good?"

The genin's eyes shifted. "I'm not sure, but it might be useful to find out if anything's going on, or maybe learn more about the guei's attacks."

"Well, ok," agreed Naruto, who didn't have anything better in mind. "I'll meet you back here, right?"

"You got it!" Tomoki said with a grin, then watched as Naruto vanished in a blur.

Tomoki settled into his meditation, closed his eyes and repeated the mantras Ichi had taught him. He focused on his posture and tried to shut away the distractions of the sensory world. Because his mind still tended toward disquiet it took awhile, but eventually he succeeded and fell into a deep, trance-like state.

When the genin emerged fully, hours later he thought, he noted that a chill had settled in the air and it had gotten substantially darker.

_It's probably too soon for me to expect any revelations,_ he realized with disappointment. The insight he'd sought had eluded him, and he wondered if it had been there at all. _It's hard even for monks and masters who've dedicated their whole lives to perfecting meditation to achieve. _The boy drew in a deep breath and caught the scent of verdure, moisture and the bare earth. _I wonder what it's like for those who really can commune with existence,_ he thought and sighed. _I guess I'll never know…_

Opening his eyes, his gaze fell on the back of a slim woman, dressed in a black mourning dress, who stood a little ways before him at the edge of the empty flower bed. "Please, Master Tomoki," asked the Empress Desdemona Shan who turned slightly toward him and smiled; her face only just visible through her veils which sparkled slightly with shimmering beads of obsidian. "Don't stir on my account. I had no intention of disturbing you."

"Not at all, my Lady," replied Tomoki, somewhat surprised.

The Empress looked toward the horizon, striking a motionless, black figure against the restless grey sky. "So tell me," she ventured nonchalantly, "what have your ruminations yielded?"

Tomoki frowned and rocked slightly where he sat on the grass. "The Omphalos," he stated calmly, "lies at the crossing of four planetary meridians." A smile took hold of his face. He hadn't known he knew that!

Desdemona stopped and looked at him for a moment before returning to her pacing. "That is an amazing observation," she noted. "I had no idea that you were learned in the sciences of geomancy." Tomoki's brow rose modestly as she went on. "It speaks volumes to me too that, out of all the lovely gardens and flower beds, you pick this one – the fallow field, to contemplate," the Empress related as she walked around him, her face canted toward the swirling clouds. "It is not the glamour of the present that attracts you, but the thought of what the future might hold. Tended carefully and guarded, this bed will yield a bounty of life. Tended poorly and it will be choked with weeds and decay."

Tomoki pondered what she'd said and felt a bit out of his depth. In a halting voice he admitted: "To be honest, I don't know why I chose this spot, Empress."

She nodded her head gently as she wandered beyond his peripheral vision. "Maybe you give yourself too little credit," the woman opined quietly. "Uiko told me that you were diverted by the Princess in Exile. Tell me, what did you think of her?"

"Lady Acacia?" repeated the boy to the unexpected question, and he had to think about it. "She's an interesting, very intelligent and capable woman," he replied, "really strong too. I was impressed."

"Indeed, indeed," agreed Desdemona's voice from behind him. "She did well under our guidance…to a point. Would it surprise you that she grew up a savage? It's true, you know. It was not so long ago that she ate her fish raw and wore clothing made of reeds," she related with a faint air of superiority. "We'd hoped that her addition to our clan would strengthen and refresh our bloodline, and bring the people of the River Lands into the fold. But things didn't quite work out the way we'd wished."

Tomoki nodded obligingly then wondered if he should say what he was about to. "I guess Earth Country's been at war for a very long time," he said, then turned his head to catch her as she came around again.

"Yes," Lady Desdemona acknowledged. "Of course, it's been so long that in truth, it's become the norm." She shook her head then gave forth a mournful sigh. "It's funny, in a tragic sort of way, the things one can become accustomed to – even war."

Tomoki watched her black shape pass before him. "Is peace really so far away? Is it that impossible?" he asked in an incredulous, though heartfelt, voice.

"We search for it at every opportunity," she explained and gestured with her hands. "Unfortunately, for us it has to be on our terms and it's the same way for the rebellious clans out in our provinces. After four-hundred years, all we've learned to do is fight and talk past each other. I used to wonder if it is not human nature to contend for its own sake, no matter what the cost."

The leaf-genin thought for a moment. "I…I can't believe that's true," he muttered in reply, then piped, "Konoha is at peace."

"Ah, yes, but for how long?" intoned the Empress.

"What do you mean?"

"Fire Country too has known war. Even being so far away, I know that," Desdemona pointed out. "The peace you have now – its foundations lie in tenuous alliances with untrustworthy allies. I'm sorry, child, but it is not a peace meant to last long."

The boy's eyes widened. "I…never thought about it like that."

"Oh, I'm sorry." The woman smiled sadly. "I didn't mean to belittle what your Hokage and Village have achieved. But you must realize that it is peace, not war, which is the aberration."

"I don't know," said Tomoki who winced at her assertion unconvinced. "I mean, you're the Empress; couldn't you could bring your wars to an end just by saying so?"

Desdemona laughed at this. "What a fanciful idea!" she pealed. "You're right, of course, and it's true to a degree although you've oversimplified. I could declare peace by imperial fiat, but what would be accomplished when our armies are commanded to lay down their arms when our adversaries are not?"

Tomoki turned to look at her over his shoulder as she again orbited him. "But maybe the clans would…be impressed and…and follow your example…," the genin's voice trailed off weakly, and he looked up into the mantle of clouds as a wind brushed past him.

"As a shinobi," said Desdemona, "I'm sure you apprehend the practical flaws of that strategy." The Empress looked at him bemusedly then meandered around in front of him. "In any case," she said lightly but certainly, "I doubt my generals would accept such a plan."

"It would take a lot of courage," conceded Tomoki who hung his head, but then continued with a revived, insightful confidence, "but then, so does war. Don't you think?"

The woman fell silent then hummed thoughtfully. "You're a very interesting young man, Tomoki. But you make me wonder how anyone so inherently pacifistic could be, or wish to be, a ninja."

"It's a long story," Tomoki confided and laughed, self-depreciatively. "Not everyone's like me; that's for sure." The boy frowned and closed his eyes. "My, uh, my home…my family, my entire province was destroyed, by a lord too stupid to appreciate what he had and by a woman who held her pride as precious and peoples' lives as less than nothing." He paused gravely, then said: "War, fighting…it may be inevitable sometimes, but it also seems to me that there's almost always another way if anyone would bother to follow it."

The woman turned and raised her gaze again towards the obscured heavens. "I wish it had been true for us," replied the Empress, "but the clans are primitive and would surely have slaughtered us if we had not fought them off."

"So you fought them," said Tomoki, "but look where that's brought you – still at war after four-hundred years. What if you'd learned instead how to get along with those 'primitives'?" he ventured. "Think about everything that's been lost to war over the centuries. What if all of that could have been harnessed to build instead of destroy? What sort of place would this be today? And what would that say about the people of Earth Country?"

Desdemona turned and rewarded him with a broad smile, visible even through her veils. "You really are marvelous to talk to, Tomoki, and in truth, I don't disagree." The lady tilted her head in fond remembrance and clasped her hands at her waist. "You remind me," she said in a distant voice, "in that way, of my son, Bode."

"Maybe I can meet him while I'm here," replied Tomoki, who recalled the name, and wondered for a moment where he knew it from. When, at last, he remembered, his brow rose and he added apologetically, "I'm sorry, Empress; that was thoughtless of me. I heard he was the first to be killed by the guei."

A wind arose, stronger and colder than before, which sent leaves gusting past them. Empress Desdemona hung her head and shivered. "Most believe that," she reported then revealed, "but it isn't true. My son went off to war, against my wishes, and returned greatly changed. He died at his own hand." Her voice trembled close to tears as she raised a hand to her chest. "It hurts in a way I cannot express. Though he lived so much longer than most get to, and though because of our kekkei-genkai we were far removed from the biology of mother and son we once shared…it does not diminish the pain I still feel at his loss. And that he cast aside his life so readily --," Desdemona paused, turned fully towards him and raised her hands out, "is that not condemnation's penultimate expression?"

The sound of her words rippled through Tomoki's consciousness, and he realized with a start the peril he was in. He blinked slowly and tried to betray no emotion even as his thoughts churned and a chill ran up his spine. At once, he threw himself aside but was stopped cold by an invisible force that seized his arms and legs and wrapped around his neck and waist.

He cried out at a blinding, searing pain and struggled furiously, but quickly realized it only made his entrapment worse. His vest, shirt and pants split open in places, exposing long, thin, seams of blood that seeped and squirted from his cut skin.

Lady Desdemona circled around, coiled her arms forcefully and Tomoki found himself yanked up into the air. "I must apologize, Tomoki," she offered with a strained voice. "This is a dreadful way to treat a guest. Unfortunately, it is a needful thing," the black-garbed woman went on to explain. "I guessed that if I used a chakra-based jutsu, you might sense it so I have resorted to an old ninja trick. It's the oldest ones, the tried and true so to speak, that are often the most effective. That's why I asked you stay where you were, so I could encircle you with a monofilament."

Tomoki's eyes flicked and could see now the silvery threads, but only when the uncertain light caught them at the right angle. He fell slack and tried to feel for any avenues of escape, but none presented themselves. He tried to force his hands together for an escape jutsu, but her wires kept them apart.

"The pain should not last long, child," soothed Desdemona. "The dried, paralytic venoms coating that wire should be re-hydrated from your blood and sweat. Its anesthetic qualities will soon take effect."

The leaf-genin wasn't sure if it was because what she'd said was true or if it was just the power of suggestion, but his wounds started to tingle softly and the pain started to fade.

"My dear, beautiful son, Bode, was right. He said that we are not warlike by nature but because of the societies we've created," the Empress continued in a voice that crested and crackled tensely. "Fear is the glue that brings and keeps them together, you see. Theirs, ours and yours are based upon it! And it is this abiding fear of others that will always need be expressed, to be relieved, through violence."

Tomoki quivered pitifully, gasping in spurts, and his vision swam as the taut wires bit deeper into his flesh. Blood ran along them and dripped off in ruby-red beads. _Calm, calm, calm!_ he thought desperately through his panic. He was trapped, poisoned and bleeding, and his body demanded that he struggle and thrash. He fought to suppress the ancient reflexes as he neared the shores of a terrible realization.

"I don't know how it started that way, or why it is," the woman said to him and he couldn't tell if she was close or far away, "but since civilization is the cause, then it is civilization that must be remedied. My Village, that I've cared and strived for all these long years, must come to an end." Again a wind blew, and with it came droplets of cold rain. Stray leaves flew past, parting and splitting where they encountered Desdemona's tensed and razor-sharp wire. "All the villages must come to an end. And just as a brushfire cleans out the dead growth, so will humanity be treated so that new kingdoms, wiser and more humane, may rise."

Could he still see or hear? Tomoki didn't know. All was quiet and dark. Breath? If he could still draw it, he couldn't be sure. Everything tingled and felt cold.

The Empress wove her way through her steel web with a grace that surpassed any mundane spider's, and knelt by the entangled boy's side. His tightly-bound limbs twitched. Blood pooled in the grass and she took pains to avoid it.

Delicately, she removed her veils and wiped the tears from her eyes. "There have been times when I thought that heaven would surely oppose me for what I mean to do," she whispered over him. "But then, when Uiko brought you here, I knew, from the very first moment I laid my eyes on you that you were my missing element – that special soul I need to complete my Jutsu of the Eight Curses." She wet her lips. "The Vagrant, the Tyrant, the Sycophant, I have, as well as the Diseased, the Condemned, the Slave and the Zealot. You, my beautiful one, shall be the eighth and last."

At the slightest gesture of her fingers, her two bandage-wrapped bodyguards appeared at her side. "Oh," she said as an afterthought, and knelt next to his motionless, prostrate body. "Again I have to apologize," she offered and gently took his snared hand in hers. "But with so much at stake, I cannot allow the chance of you escaping by means of one of your jutsus." That said, she wrapped her hand around the forefinger of his right hand and jerked back sharply, breaking it in a single, sharp, pop.

One after the other she went until all of her captive's fingers were crippled and broken then kissed him lightly on his paling forehead. "I'm so sorry, child, but I promise it's almost over." Reaching inside her dress, she produced a vial. She dipped a brush into it then began to draw it over Tomoki's trembling cheek with a mastery worthy of the finest Zen calligraphers. The moment the liquid touched his skin, it started to burn. After she was through, she studied the character she'd rendered: 'Orphan.'


	9. Many Happy Returns

_"How long do you think you can hold out like this?"_ Manciple's voice murmured, flowing like cold syrup through Tomoki's drugged mind.

_Leave me alone,_ Tomoki thought back angrily, feeling nothing, sensing nothing. The trauma of Empress Desdemona's attack upon him, her wires biting through his flesh, roared like blazing comets through his consciousness. That and why he hadn't seen before that she was completely insane?

_"Brother, please –."_

_I told you, don't call me that!_ the boy snarled bitterly. _If I was anything like a brother to you, you'd help me; you'd get me out of this!_

_"But I only want to unite with you…and the others,_ returned the ghost's disembodied explanation which was labored with emotion._ All together we'll be complete. As one, we'll be powerful."_

_Just go away,_ Tomoki grumbled to the darkness.

His unwelcome spectral companion said nothing for a time – long enough for the ninja to start to believe that maybe he had, but then:_ "I have to say, I'm simply amazed at your willpower," _the guei fawned softly, but his admiration seemed sincere, "_the way you've slowed your breath and heartbeat. But you can't stop this."_ The voice waited for a reply and somehow seemed miffed at not receiving one. _"Just accept it, please brother, your delay will only cause you greater pain. The Shan Empress has marked you with her seals and…and, I do so hate to be the one to tell you this…has buried you, so there really is no escape. _Again the spirit paused and again was rewarded only with silence. _"What are you waiting for anyway, a miracle? Don't you see that your fate is inevitable? What, do you think your yellow-haired friend will save you?"_

_Maybe,_ the genin stated curtly.

The guei's voice fell quiet for a moment then returned along a different tack. _"Haven't you forgotten something?_ it said._ Your parents, your family, the village where you grew up, did they not all die in the bone fire of another's depravity? Who came to your aid, anyone? Mankind is indifferent to suffering and must answer for it. Don't you see that?"_

_So what are we supposed to do,_ the genin wondered, _destroy the world like Desdemona wants?_

_"It won't be quite as dramatic as all that,"_ the ghost clarified, though not by much. "_We won't have the power to destroy humanity and we won't need it. Once our essences mingle and are released into the world, we will embolden the foremost aspects of men's character. Tyrants, sycophants and zealots will ascend and turn the rest upon one another. We don't have to destroy humanity, you see, we will only help it destroy itself."_

Tomoki put aside his revulsion for the spirit's callus explanation and attempt to manipulate him. _For someone who wants to be my brother so bad, you know nothing about me,_ he assessed._ I did lose everything and I am an orphan, but I will never hold my pain over anyone else's. My life is dear to me, but I cannot put its value over another's._

Manciple cried out, stung by the boy's remarks. _"You're insufferable! Life has taught you nothing!"_

_Huh,_ the genin responded disparagingly,_ what a funny thing for you to say. When people die they give up what they had in life. The wealthy give up their treasures, kings give up their kingdoms and lovers give up their loves, but not you. I refuse to be judged by a spirit who's taken its shackles with it into the afterlife. That's why I could cut through them, right?_ Silence ensued, whereupon Tomoki reiterated: _well?! _Realization set in. _Oh! Wait a minute; is that your little secret? Do all you guei have such attachments that anchor you to the living world? _His thoughts roiled with laughter, an odd sensation, not being able to express it physically. _I came close to the truth when I cut through your collar, didn't I?_

Manciple, if he was still there, refused to reply._ What?_ taunted Tomoki,_ don't you want to talk anymore? Are you mad at me?_

_"I'm not mad, Tomoki, really," _the guei answered at last, _"because we'll all be together in the end. When next we meet, you won't refuse our company or our purpose. You won't be able to…but more importantly, you won't want to."_

The boy fought fiercely to reign in his thoughts, for Maniciple's words really had made him afraid. _Sounds fun,_ he managed to force a glib reply, _I guess I'd better rest up._

_"Yes, brother, rest – rest in peace."

* * *

_

Naruto Uzumaki walked along the clean, orderly streets of the Hidden Stone Village with his hands in his pockets. The sky was still overcast and gloomy. Everywhere he wandered, the shopkeepers, vendors and menials all glanced at him then looked away whenever he looked back.

A frown creased his face. This was worse than it had been back home, where some people at least had gotten used to him. _Aw, what am I doing here anyway,_ the ninja lamented. _This place sucks. I should be back training. That old pervert, Jaraiya's hard enough to find anyway. Who knows where he'll go if I'm away for too long._

The further on he went the more disoriented he felt. These avenues were too clean, too orderly, and there were none of the strange landmarks, distinctively-shaped buildings and polygonal plazas like they had in Konoha by which he could find his way. Only the oppressive walls of Castle Omphalos, which struck high over the rooftops, told him how far he had gone.

_There's something really strange about this place, and the people too_, he considered, then grumbled at his inability to put his finger on what it was. After awhile he balled his fists, thinking: _Oh, no, I've been hanging out with Tomoki too much! Now I'm starting to think like him! I should've known he'd get me involved with something crazy._

But this was more than paranoia, or a sense of dislocation at being in an unfamiliar place. That would be understandable. Ever since he'd started out, he felt certain that there were eyes upon him, watching and waiting…

"Hi, Naruto!" a voice chirped, making the genin startle.

Naruto whirled toward Reona who stood there with a smile on her slightly cherubic face. "Hey, Reona," he replied in a forced cavalier tone, then remembered her partner and added sharply: "are you alone? That Fugo guy isn't around here, is he?"

Her brown eyes widened while her two braids swayed in the rising wind. "Huh?" she replied puzzled, then blurted with a laugh, "no!"

"Good," said the blond ninja, who frowned seriously then raised an eyebrow at her. "How did you find me anyway?"

The young stone-ninja's eyes widened. "Oh, I spotted you a mile away!" she explained cheerily. "Your orange really stands out." Her expression turned thoughtful. "It's kind of a weird color for a ninja to wear, isn't it?"

"Oh, er," stammered Naruto in his high, gravelly voice, "it's actually great camouflage as long as I keep my back to the sun."

The girl froze at his explanation. "I…wow, I didn't think of that," she confessed, at which Naruto smiled and scratched behind his head. Reona smiled demurely then looked around. "So…where's Tomoki?"

Naruto made a face and rolled his eyes. "Don't ask…he's off dreaming, meditating…something, I don't know." The genin's expression changed suddenly. "Hey!" he started to ask, "do you know where a hungry ninja can get some ramen around here?"

The girl's nose wrinkled as she looked at him confused. "Ramen?"

Naruto stared, appalled at this heresy. "Noodles?" he explained irritably.

"Oh!" she said and nodded. "Well, sure. Follow me!"

The leaf ninja surely didn't know how the kunoichi could tell one block from another, but after a short while she ushered him into a small restaurant, whose uninspired sign read plainly enough: 'Restaurant'. The place was immaculately clean, with its little tables and chairs arranged in perfect symmetry, and completely empty of inhabitants except for them. Following Reona's lead, Naruto sat down, though apprehensively.

The proprietor appeared after a few minutes: a matronly woman in a grey dress and perfectly-white apron. Her eyes rose with alarm at the sight of the leaf-ninja but then softened with an almost reverent look when Reona turned to her and smiled.

The two ordered their meals and the woman brought out cups and a pot of steaming tea while they waited.

"What was that all about?" Naruto asked the girl. "Are you related or something?"

"No," said Reona quietly. "She's just being nice because she knows I'm supposed to deploy soon."

"Deploy?" replied the boy thickly.

"Um-hmm," she reaffirmed, obviously discomfited by the subject, "with my class. I'm a genin now, and we're all headed to the frontier."

The ninja's face sank as he took in what that meant. Unlike the missions he'd undertaken as a genin, some fearful and dangerous like his journey to the Land of Waves but many more tedious and unremarkable, she was going to war. "Oh," he said sadly. "Do you know where you're going?"

Her brow narrowed slightly as she chewed at the corner of her lips. "My…my unit's been assigned to the River Lands." The way she said it told him that she had some idea of what that meant. The boy recalled the stuffed example of what she'd be up against from the Tsuchikage's hall, and the chunin Catullus' dire report about them.

For one of the few times in his life, Naruto tried to contain his reaction. He looked around tensely and wrung his hands. "Oh," he managed almost carelessly, swallowed, and took some of his tea but couldn't hide his concern. "Well," he tried again. "How long do you have to stay there?"

"How long?" the kunoichi repeated and looked back at him curiously. "Until it's over," she said as if it should be obvious, "until we win."

This was more than the boy could stand. "Until you win?!" he shouted and shot to his feet. "It's been over four-hundred years already!" As he stood over the shocked girl, his mind swam with the implications. Though his own lord Hokage had sent him and genin younger than him to face death, he could not imagine the old man sending generation after generation of his ninja off to a war that seemingly had no end. It came to him in that moment what it was that bothered him about this place – there was no abundance of young people like there was in the Hidden Leaf Village. The reason for that was clear, they had been sent to war.

Naruto's hands shook; his jaw was so tense it quivered. As he stood there, huffing for breath in his anger, he felt helpless. There was nothing he could do. He had no right to stop her. Even if he did, the war would rage on and on as it always had. "This will never happen," he vowed in a furious voice, "in the Hidden Leaf Village when I'm Hokage." The girl stared at him wide-eyed with alarm and mystification as he went on: "No matter what, I'll find another way!"

"Wh…when you're the Hokage?" she squeaked uncertainly.

The boy nodded seriously and returned to his seat. "Believe it."

Their food arrived just then, breaking what would have been an extremely awkward moment. Unfortunately, this place's idea of 'ramen' was thick, yellow noodles drowning in gravy. Naruto grimaced and almost groaned in disappointment, but he was ravenously hungry and so he ate anyway.

Once outside after the two had finished their meal, Reona looked up at Naruto and brushed a strand of stray hair from her pale face. "It was good seeing you again," she offered. "I wasn't sure I would after we left you at the Castle."

"Huh?" replied the leaf-genin absently, for he'd been completely absorbed in thought. "Yeah, you too Reona."

"Hey, um, Naruto," she started again abashedly. "Would you tell Tomoki I said 'hi'?"

Naruto smiled and his deep blue eyes narrowed into crinkles. "Sure I will," he said agreeably. "He'll feel bad about missing you, but that's what he gets for acting all weird and stuff."

She smiled back then asked, "What did the Tsuchikage want with him anyway? Uiko never did tell us."

"Oh, well, uh…I really can't say," he hedged. She knew nothing of her lord's demise, and telling her about that or of the monstrous guei would do nothing but upset her. "It's top-secret ninja stuff."

"Oh!" she said and blinked. "Well, ok, I understand."

"I should be getting back," offered Naruto with a frown as he looked up into the darkening palisades of clouds. "I told Tomoki I'd meet up with him after awhile."

"Yeah, I need to go too," the kunoichi explained. "To get ready…you know."

As they started to part ways, Naruto turned back to her. "Hey, Reona!" he called. "Be careful; I mean it!"

Reona looked at him and her expression melted at his concern. "Thanks Naruto," she offered. "I will."

* * *

Walking back they way he thought he'd come, Naruto felt increasingly uneasy. He'd never liked this place, and the more he found out about it the worse he was sure it was. The weather had been dreary all day, which didn't help his mood, and now it seemed as if a storm was rolling in. The wind had picked up, the air had grown cold and seemed heavy with moisture. The clouds which had been as a solid wall of grey since morning were thicker now and murky.

The genin quickened his pace, anxious to rendezvous with Tomoki before things really got bad.

"Hey," said a strong, mellow voice. "Look there, it's that leaf-ninja."

Naruto stopped and turned toward where a man stood, leaning casually against a wall with his arms folded. He was tall and sleek-looking but with a rugged nose and jaw. A majestic black mane flowed back over his headband which had upon it the crest of the Village Hidden among the Stones. A woman stood beside him, also wearing the uniform of a stone-ninja. She was attractive, fair-skinned and with ribbons of striking, silvery-blond hair.

Naruto, having been taken off-guard, gave them a blank look but then narrowed his eyes seriously. "Yeah," he began, lowering and toughening his voice. "What about it?"

"Not a thing," said the man, who sauntered up then looked down at him with a calm expression in his dark eyes. "I just wanted to say, as one ninja to another, that I heard about your fight with the guei. I'm impressed."

"Truly," added the woman in a cool, professional voice.

The genin was taken aback at this. "What, really?" he squeaked excitedly then huddled against a chilling gust of wind.

"Oh yeah," said the man, who gestured absently. "My name's Minoru. I'm a jonin of the Hidden Stone Village," he offered with an air of pride, then bowed.

"And I am Ai," said the woman who also bowed, then snickered at her companion, "a chunin, since we're throwing our ranks around. I heard about that fight too and I must say it sounds like it was quite the epic battle!"

Naruto looked away, self-effacingly. "Oh, well, I don't know about all that," he replied modestly.

"Come now, shinobi shouldn't be so shy!" insisted Ai, who raised an eyebrow toward her partner before returning her attention to the leaf-genin. "You fought that ghost, Manciple, and I heard nearly defeated him."

"Indeed," added Minoru flatly, "even surviving an encounter with him is proof of your worth."

Naruto nodded then grinned goofily at their praise.

"Hey," said Ai eagerly. "You haven't told us your name."

"Oh!" piped Naruto, alarmed and surprised at his oversight, then declared loudly: "My name is Naruto Uzumaki – number one ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village!"

The two stone-ninja looked at each other. "Ah," exclaimed the kunoichi. "We should have guessed that."

"Huh?" wondered Naruto. "What do you mean? Do you guys know me?"

"We know _of_ you, certainly," answered Minoru coolly with a nod.

"Well, sure!" Ai agreed and winked at him. "We like to keep track of what's going on in the other Villages, you know, to see what the competition is up to. For instance, we know all about your mission to the Land of Waves, how your team took down the infamous Zabuza Momochi and how you personally took down his apprentice, Haku."

Naruto gasped then stared at them, eyes wide with shock. "You really know about that?!"

Ai put a hand over her mouth to contain her laughter. "Of course!" she chimed. "You didn't think you can keep a story like that secret, did you?"

"Well, I…"

"Tell us," the woman urged. "What rank have you achieved? You must be at least a chunin by now."

The question took the boy by surprise. "Uh, no," Naruto admitted, a little self-consciously. "I'm still a genin, but I'm close to chunin! Actually, I'm in the middle of the chunin exams right now!"

The jonin hummed thoughtfully, then opined, "You're sure to pass."

"As long as you train hard," Ai added and raised her forefinger knowingly.

"You better believe I train hard!" Naruto exclaimed, and his brow furrowed as he raised his fist for emphasis, "every single day like my life depends on it!"

"As you should," the stone-jonin affirmed, "because I'm sure that your opponent will be fierce."

"Um-hmm," grunted Naruto. "He's an arrogant, stuck-up little --," his rant gave way to a long trail of expletives, "named Neji Hyuuga."

Ai's face lit at the mention of the name. "Ah," she began, "a worthy opponent for you -- the prince of the Hyuuga clan. He won't be defeated easily."

The boy's sapphire eyes widened. "You know him too?"

"That should come as no surprise," ventured Minoru. "After all, his clan is renowned. It is said that no man can stand before the full force of their byakugan combined with their unique gentle-fist fighting method."

Naruto's mouth hung open at the jonin's analysis. The man had a point.

"Don't lose heart," offered Ai supportively. "I can see greatness within you and hidden powers anchored by an indomitable will."

"Come on," said the jonin who squeezed Naruto's shoulder reassuringly. "Train with us a little while. We'll give you some pointers. I think the experience will do you good."

Naruto looked up with hope shining in his eyes. "What, really? You guys want to train me? That'd be great!" he gushed, but then his glee faded and he frowned doubtfully.

"What is it?" asked Minoru.

The leaf-genin hesitated and his eyes searched uncertainly. "It's just that," he muttered as if to himself, "there was someplace I had to go…"

The two stone-shinobi exchanged glances. "I'm sure it can wait," suggested Ai. "After all, there's plenty of time."

Naruto looked up. Over the buildings and rooftops of the Hidden Stone Village, the dark clouds had receded, giving way to white and pale grey, with streaks of early-afternoon sunlight pouring through. "Oh!" he pealed. "I didn't think it was so early."

"Haha, you're still used to Konoha," the jonin pointed out. "We lie along a higher latitude here."

"Sure," Naruto agreed. His cheek twitched with one last lingering reservation, but that faded almost instantly. "I…sure!"

The two stone-ninjas conducted Naruto to a well-equipped training ground and put him through his paces: calisthenics for strength and balance, running laps around a daunting obstacle course for endurance and coordination, sparring to work his punches, kicks and combinations, then grappling to develop his ground-fighting skills. Minoru and Ai were vastly strong and lightning quick, and it was all Naruto could do just to keep up with them.

Lastly, they had him work on his jutsus – all of them, from simple substitution and transformations to his shadow-clone jutsu and his nascent summoning jutsu.

It seemed as if he'd been at it for a long time. He was as exhausted as he'd ever been, and felt unusually cold, but the sun was still high and bright in the sky when he checked.

"You can't be tired yet!?" prodded Ai, who frowned sternly and looked down at him with hands braced on her hips. "You can't quit until you've summoned a real frog at least, and not just the same old tadpole."

"Yeah, you're right," Naruto allowed, though his vision swam and his muscles ached unmercifully. Again he made his hand seals and pressed his fingers to the ground, but again only a tiny tadpole appeared. The boy collapsed to his knees at the effort it had cost him. He really was empty now. There was nothing left. "I…can't give up yet," he declared and slowly, agonizingly, pushed his way to his feet.

"Your endurance is truly amazing," observed Minoru appraisingly. "But you'll have to do much better than that if you hope to defeat Neji."

Naruto slouched and braced his quivering hands on his unsteady knees. His breath rattled in his chest and burned cold in his lungs. _Why do I feel so weak?!_ he scolded himself. Sweat beaded on his forehead, ran down his whisker-marked cheeks and flowed over his yellow eyebrows in icy rivers. _Why am I so cold?_

"Just a little longer," Ai prevailed on him. "Then we'll take a break, ok?"

The genin looked up and gave her a ragged smile, then tried to gather his chakra again for another attempt at the summoning jutsu.

"Naruto?" a girl's familiar voice broke his concentration, and his head wobbled weakly on his neck as he turned to look.

Reona stood on the crest of a hill above them, bathed in sunlight, and looked down at him worriedly. "Are you ok?"

"Sure, Reona," he replied keenly, though his weariness came through in his voice. "Just…getting in some training."

Minoru stepped toward her and drew himself up. "This is a serious exercise, genin!" he spat then gestured back at Naruto. "He needs to concentrate at all times!"

The boy's eyes drifted up towards the jonin. "Hey, you!" he protested. "She's my friend. She can talk to me if she wants."

"Naruto," cautioned Ai. "You can talk anytime. It's your training that's important. The more practice you get in, the better your chances against Neji. You don't want him to beat you, do you?"

"No," the boy growled raggedly. "I can't let that happen…I swore…and after…after what he did to Hinata…"

"Okay then," the stone-chunin insisted, "back to it."

"Naruto," asked Reona again in a trembling, hesitant voice as she clambered down the hillside toward him. "Who are these people?"

"Huh?"

"We are elite ninjas, girl; how dare you interrupt?!" Minoru scolded. "You must leave at once!"

"Wait!" cried Naruto who staggered past them and planted himself between them and her. Panting for breath, he turned toward Reona and almost fell on her but reached out and managed to brace himself on her shoulders.

"Naruto," she whispered fearfully and cast a furtive glance past him. "I don't know these ninja you're with. I've never seen them before in my life!"

Naruto looked at her with dazed eyes. "Reona," he suggested, "you…you can't know every ninja in the Hidden Stone Village, right?"

"No," she admitted, "but I think I'd remember them." Her quiet voice dipped even lower as she grasped the leaf-genin's enfeebled arms, then gently took his chilled, slack face between her small, warm palms. "Naruto, please," she pleaded. "I think this is a genjutsu."

The yellow-haired boy's eyes widened. Swallowing hard, he pushed Reona's hands away and turned toward his trainers. Their outlines shimmered now like mirages, their features blurred into diaphanous nebulae except for the branded characters on their cheeks which were plain as day. As he gasped with the sudden realization, the sun fled what had been a brilliant, clear sky and was replaced by dark and turbulent clouds that swirled and boiled with aberrant energies.

What lay around Naruto was not a tidy training ground but the ruins of a burnt-out building. His orange jacket and pants were smeared with charcoal black and caked with soot. His hands were raw and splintered.

"We are found out, brother," observed the woman, who appeared older now and dressed in a gown of antiquated style. "Though your plan was extremely clever," she opined then studied her expression in a hand mirror she upheld in a dainty wrist.

"So it appears," said Manciple, whose chains jangled almost musically from the shackles at his wrists and ankles.

"Shall we destroy them now?" his companion proposed.

Manciple shook his head slowly. "No need, Sister Sycophant. Our diversion served its purpose, and that is enough. We need to save our energy." He smiled his gap-toothed smile. "Do you see how easily it will be to destroy humanity? It won't take some great plague or a comet from the heavens. All it needs is a push here and pull there to unbalance it. See how easily this boy fell to flattery and his own, dare I say it, slavish devotion to his training. With just a little push, a practice that's good and healthful becomes as deadly poison."

"Hey!" shouted Naruto at the ghostly pair, enraged at their deception. "You haven't won yet! And you won't!"

"Won't we?" Manciple snarled confidently, then held his translucent arms open. "What's to stop us? Is it you, yellow-hair – so tired and weak from pursuit of your own obsessions that you can barely stand?" He swiveled toward Reona who gaped at him in fright. "Is it your knowing and all-powerful Tsuchikage, little girl? He'd dead, did you know? I killed him." Manciple paused to laugh at something before he continued: "I think it's fair to say it won't be your Empress Desdemona. Who do you think it was that summoned us in the first place?!"

Both spirits looked up toward Castle Omphalos, its high walls and gushing waterfalls, as if summoned by some distant, unheard cry.

"Come, Brother Manciple," urged Sycophant gently. "We've lingered long enough."

"Of course," the ghost agreed, then winked at Naruto and Reona. "We shall take our leave of you. We're going to meet your friend, Tomoki, like you forgot to do because you were too busy and couldn't be bothered! He's just crossed over -- our precious eighth soul. Unlike you, I wouldn't miss him for the world, because…he's one of us now!"

Naruto cried out his anguish as the two guei vanished, evanescing like smoke upon the wind. He whirled around and stormed toward Reona who cringed before the madness in his blazing, blue eyes and soot-smeared face. "Reona!" the leaf-ninja barked as he seized her by the collar. "You've got to take me to Plaza Lithica…right now!"

The girl looked back at him in shock. "On the Castle grounds?" she blurted. "I…I can't. I'm not allowed there!"

The boy hung his head tiredly then took a gasping breath. "Please, Reona, you have to. Tomoki's there and those monsters are after him. Didn't you hear?"

A hard look came over her face as she thought for a moment, grunted her assent, then began to make her hand signs. "Ninja art: Ghost Walk Jutsu," she said, as Naruto drew behind her and both vanished into a tunnel of swirling lights.

* * *

With Reona following close behind, Naruto found his way back to the spot at Plaza Lithica where he'd left Tomoki. A harsh wind raced over the manicured lawns and immaculate flower beds, and tore though the tree boughs. Of the other leaf-ninja, there was no sign.

Naruto narrowed his eyes and looked around sharply. "Tomoki!" he called out against the fading light which made it hard to see. "Hey, Tomoki!"

"Are you sure this is where you left him?" asked Reona louder than usual to be heard over the wind and threatening rumbles of thunder. "This is a really big place."

"Of course I'm sure," barked Naruto testily.

The two spread out and looked around then up as the clouds began to flash with lightning. "Ahhrr!" growled Naruto who raised his hands then let them fall to his sides in frustration. "Where is he?!"

"Um, well, did he say anything?" said Reona, trying to be helpful. "Anywhere else he was going to go?"

"No, he said he was going to be right here!" Naruto paced furiously, casting his gaze in all directions.

"I, uh, well, there is something I could try," said Reona, "if you promise not to get mad if it doesn't work."

Naruto drew up to her expectantly, then realized she was serious. "Oh, ok," he said and tried to reign in his frustration. "I promise I won't get mad. What 'cha got?"

The girl reached into the big pocket inside her vest and pulled out two wires that were bent into 'L's. She grinned awkwardly as she took them in hand and held them in loose fists by the short legs so that the long legs stuck straight out in front of her, parallel to the ground and each other.

"Uh, ok," ventured Naruto. "How's this supposed to help us find Tomoki?"

"They're called dowsing rods," Reona explained. "You're supposed to be able to use your chakra and sensitivity to locate anything you want to, but I'm not very good." She looked down at the two wires, concentrated, and took a step. The wires crossed immediately, pulling toward each other to form an 'X'. She looked up in alarm. "Sorry, Naruto," she said hurriedly. "Let me try again." Once more, she set up the two wires parallel in her loose grip and took a step. Again the wires crossed.

"So…that means it's not working?" guessed Naruto.

The young kunoichi looked at him, near to despair. "I guess not. They're telling me he's right here."

Naruto looked around again, down at the grass and then at the bare flower bed. "Well," he began grimly, "he's pretty good at ninjutsu, but I don't think he's _that_ good."

"I'm sorry, Naruto, I never was very good at any of this --," Reona began, then cried out sharply as she tripped and pin-wheeled face-first into the grass.

Naruto jumped to help her up. "Reona," he said, "are you ok?"

The girl spit out and brushed off grass clippings from her face, then both looked down at her foot which had caught on something. Naruto drew a kunai knife and lifted the nearly-invisible wire from the top of her boot. "A tripwire?" he guessed, and the two looked around.

"If it was a trap, I sure set it off," said Reona. "Hey, that thing cut almost all the way through my boot!"

The boy frowned. "That sure is weird," he said as he raised his knife up and canted his head to see where it lead. He rose, letting the filament glide over the blade and followed it to where it ended, tied firmly around the branch of a tree. "Hmm, ok," he muttered to himself then traced the wire back the other way, past where Reona had discovered it, to where it vanished into the uncovered ground of the fallow flower bed.

The young genin raised an eyebrow at the incongruity, then wet his lips just as the rain started to fall. Droplets spattered one after the other on his grimy orange jacket and over his face as his curious expression slowly faded and he looked down at where the wire disappeared with mounting trepidation.

He and Reona shared a glance, then threw themselves at the ground together and began to dig, bare-handed, throwing clots of earth behind them as they went. "Wait," growled Naruto, "get back!" The genin gathered his breath and the last reserves of his chakra, made hand seals then shouted: "Shadow-Clone Jutsu!"

Five more Narutos appeared beside him and all set at once to digging just as the drops of rain surged into a downpour. The bare ground softened into squishy mud as the excavation deepened and the gang of leaf-ninjas dug with even greater fervor. One of the Narutos shoveled aside yet another handful of the muck then froze, at which everyone paused to see what he'd uncovered: the edge of a boot sole.

High above, lightning flashed amidst the darkening sky, and the water began to come down in waves that rippled like beaded curtains. Naruto and his shadow clones cleared the mud away and at last pulled Tomoki's body from the reluctant ground. His clothes and skin were cut to shreds, and every inch of him stained from his interment underground. Most horrifyingly of all were his hands, on which every finger was broken and twisted at an unnatural angle.

Naruto gaped blankly at the sight and slumped to his knees as his shadow-clones vanished into puffs of dispersed chakra.

Reona rushed to Tomoki's side, checked for breath and pulse as she'd been trained to, but soon ceased her frantic attempts to administer aid. "Oh, no…Tomoki," she whispered in horror then looked at Naruto with tears in her eyes.

The boy huddled numbly over his knees, while cascades of rain matted his hair, coursed down his face and over his already saturated clothing. "I'm going to kill her for this," he intoned in a haunting voice.

"Naruto…," pleaded Reona softly, though for what she didn't know.

With a strange slowness, Naruto raised his head then looked at her with unblinking eyes. "I'm going to kill her," he hissed intensely, "for this."

"Please," she said as the boy came to a crouch then pushed himself up to his feet, "don't."

Naruto looked through her then turned his head just as another flash of lightning lit the sky. When it faded, all was completely dark except for a pattern of stranger lights and the glow of a single lantern that came from the circle of standing-stones that waited at the center of the Plaza.

Reona rose and went toward the leaf-ninja, her muddy boots slippery on the wet grass, and put her hand on his shoulder. Naruto's head snapped toward her and she froze then stumbled back from the look in his eyes, which glowed red and feral. The boy bent his knees then sprang away, leaping over the rain-swept distance.

Reona stood there in the rain and watched Naruto vanish into the darkness. Expressing a sigh and still shaking with tears, she turned and collided into something soggy and cold that made her recoil, slip and stumble to the ground. A shriek escaped her before she looked up and saw that it was Tomoki who stood there with eyes closed, and a grizzly, fresh brand on his cheek – a character that read, 'Orphan'.

"T…Tomoki?" she ventured fearfully at his expressionless face. "But how?"

The boy turned his head toward her though his eyes remained shut. "Hello, Reona," he greeted impassively. "I need your help."

The girl looked over what she could make out of him though the darkness and rain. "Tomoki," she squeaked uncertainly. "How c-c-come your clothes are clean, and how come you're not cut anymore?"

For a moment it seemed as if the apparition hadn't heard her, but then he paced purposefully toward her and lowered himself to his knees. "My swords," he said, then, with unnatural slowness, raised his twisted, mangled hands, the sight of which made the girl quiver, shut her eyes and turn away. "Listen to me, Reona," instructed Tomoki unemotionally. "I need you to bandage my swords into my hands. Please, do it now."

It seemed to take forever for her to fathom what he wanted, but after awhile she reached into one of her pockets and produced a bandage roll then reached toward where Tomoki knelt and drew his swords. Taking his arm under hers, she pried open his broken, swollen fingers and rested the hilt in his clammy, icy-cold palm. As she bent the fingers back over the weapon and began to tape, she looked over her shoulder perhaps expecting him to complain but he said nothing except: "as tightly as you can, Reona, but leave the wrists free to bend."

The process took awhile but when she'd finished, Tomoki rose to his feet and stood there motionlessly, chin in chest. His hands were no longer hands, but white-wrapped knobs that affixed his swords to his crippled grasp. A flash of lightning reflected from his steel made them blaze for a moment like a bright 'X'. "Thank you, Reona," he said. "That's good."

The girl quaked and swallowed hard against her dread. What she didn't want to do was look past him; to look toward the excavation. Because if she saw that Tomoki's still, lifeless form still rested there upon the muddy lip of the hole she and Naruto had dug, it might be too much for her. "What now?" she managed to ask.

"What now?" Tomoki repeated curiously. "I don't know, Reona, but you should go…very far from here. Whatever happens next is not something you want to be around for."

As the leaf-ninja turned his unseeing face toward the distant circle of standing stones, Reona splashed over the drenched grass after him. "Tomoki!" she called plaintively.

The boy stopped dead, turned toward her and opened his eyes which glowed and crackled with unworldly luminance.


	10. ExErcising Ghosts

Naruto's great, bounding strides carried him through the darkness and the blinding curtains of rain. All around him, the surreal landscape flickered and flashed as the boiling heavens convulsed in spasms of lightning and roared with thunder as if it was the end of the world.

The genin's eyes narrowed and his teeth bared with rage. Torrents of water streamed down his face and rolled from his saturated clothes. Up ahead, drawing nearer with every moment and every pounding footfall, the circle of standing stones awaited. The lights swirling within it shone like a beacon in the darkness.

Again the lightning blazed, and in that moment everything out to the horizon's edge that had been hidden in the depths of the stormy night's stygian depths lit up suddenly stark white. A boom of thunder followed that crackled across the black sky and shook the earth like divine wrath, but Naruto neither saw nor heard. Driven by a single, simple thought, the ninja pushed himself even faster as he came to a swollen river, one of the five that surged now through Plaza Lithica, having overflowed their channels. Without even slowing, Naruto crossed; his feet carrying him over the water's racing surface on flashes of red chakra.

At last he arrived at the ancient temple. Scowling, shoulders shaking, and huffing for breath, Naruto passed between the hulking stone monuments and entered. Across from him a figure stood draped in robes of bright red, beneath a tented pavilion that created an oasis of dry clarity amidst the continuing deluge. Between the two glowed the strange, carved stone of the Omphalos, from which whorls of light drifted like veils upon the night's dark shores.

Quivering with rage, Naruto stood there with fists clenched. The ninja looked up sharply; his sapphire eyes flashed as his lips pulled back behind white canines. _"You killed him!"_ he snarled in a gravely voice that met and matched the thunder. _"Why?!"_ his voice roared, torn by anguish_. "How could you do that?!"_

Without awaiting an answer, the genin coiled then sprang with a bestial cry. His leap carried him up through the rain then down into a descending arc toward the lone woman. But as his balled fist pulled back and his face gathered with fury, something caught him at the ankles and sent him plunging face-first into the sodden grass with a resounding splash.

The red figure removed the veils and wraps that covered her face. "So much fire," the Empress Desdemona observed, barely audible over the hammering rain. "Such rage, such spirit…if you only understood how useless it all is, and how necessary your companion's sacrifice was." Lightning flared again, dancing through the black, fortress clouds. The woman looked up as the thunder crackled. "It all came to me in a vision, you know, a…visitation from a great, dark and terrible angel. It was then that I knew what it was I must do."

Unfazed by his fall and unmoved by her explanation, Naruto's clawed fingers dug into the grass and mud as he pushed his head up and glared at her. "_I'll kill you for what you've done!_" he seethed in a voice that was barely human.

The Shan matriarch sighed sadly as her accuser was dragged across the water-slicked ground, lifted high into the air and flung hard into one of the massive standing-stones. The genin stiffened at the impact and fell breathlessly to his hands and knees. Looking up, he saw the departing chains wind back though space toward where Manciple stood. The phantasmal figure glowed faintly in hues of blue and white while his eyes and the terrible ideogram scarred into his cheek blazed. The guei eyed him cleverly, winked, then crossed his shackled arms, striking a profile between the dark monoliths that loomed on either side of him.

As Naruto's eyes roamed with savage deliberation over the bleak landscape, he saw that Manciple was not alone. Between the standing stones, six more shapes coalesced -- all of the remaining ghosts Desdemona Shan's terrible jutsu had conjured, all save one.

"There's no point in fighting us," advised Manciple in a fatalistic drawl.

"Even though you are so beautiful," added Sycophant with feeling, "and strong."

"And your passion shines as an example, truly magnificent to behold!" continued Zealot, whose bald pate and prayer beads shone in a halo of misty light.

"Here you are, alone and outnumbered," said Vagrant, a forlorn looking woman with braided hair and an asymmetrically-featured face.

"It's no use. Your work can only come to failure," offered Condemned through his scraggly beard. He wore an encumbrance of clothes, and a strangely-colored hat.

"Death…and decay," stressed Diseased, his face, arms and legs hidden beneath swaths of stained bandages.

"You have no choice but to flee – flee while you still live!" commanded Tyrant. Of this ghastly group he alone appeared almost human, a man of healthy middle-age with graying hair, grey slacks and lapelled coat. But his disturbing pallor, flickering eyes, and the bright scar upon his cheek revealed his true nature.

The blond genin's hot breath gusted and gushed into the cold, rainy air. "Flee?" answered Naruto scornfully as he pushed his way to his feet, glared at the Shan Empress then pointed. "I'm not going anywhere until you're dead," he shouted then swept his arm around at the hellish assemblage, "and none of you can stop me!"

While Desdemona's scarlet shape remained silent and composed, bone dry under her canopy despite the downpour, her guei all chuckled with cold menace.

Naruto stood under their cruel, certain gazes and stared through the rain with his breaths coming faster and faster. Suddenly, he cried out – a terrible howl that split and echoed through the night. The rainwater that pooled around his feet fled back as a whirling maelstrom of energy manifested around him, spiraling around and upward into the darkness in a lashing column of red.

Water floated from the ground, rolled and writhed in undulant globs.

All around the ancient temple, the rain billowed and thrashed from the turbulence. The wet faces of the standing stones reflected red, and even the undead guei shrank from the power of the strange boy's unearthly chakra. Naruto's eyes burned like coals, the markings on his cheeks pronounced and his limbs thickened as he dropped to all-fours.

The Shan Empress drew back with an arm raised protectively over her face. "What," she stammered fearfully, "what is this?"

The transformed Naruto shot toward her, the space between them blurring by in an instant. His clawed hand struck for her throat but was intercepted by Manciple who threw himself in his path and lashed out with his chains. The ninja ducked, lowered his shoulder and charged right through the ghost whose supernatural substance yielded before his demonic fury. More guei awaited, their human-like appearance dissolving into nebulous clouds of angry energy. Glowing tendrils whipped toward Naruto, but could not match his speed as he evaded them and circled around. Vagrant and Condemned moved to head him off. This time the genin weaved, and his hands ripped voids through the two apparitions as he passed.

With Desdemona's spectral minions in disarray, the possessed Naruto spun toward her. The red-robed figure unfolded her arms and snapped them straight forward, but the genin had seen this trick before and leaped away as her needles exploded past him. Springing back, Naruto tackled her and his hands ripped into her mantle of red, breaking bones and rending flesh.

Suddenly, it was sunny. The rain was gone and the air was warm. Naruto looked up, dazed by the sudden dislocation, at the glass-like panes of ice that compassed him on all sides and above, and the bright sunlight that filtered through from beyond. Haku's masked and jade-robed shape cowered as his trembling hand pointed at Naruto accusingly. "Y…you killed him," the normally impassive voice crested in horror. "Your own teammate…your friend!"

With his heart pounding and mind still aflame with rage, Naruto looked down at Sasuke Uchiha's broken corpse, his own gore-clotted hands, and the rivers of blood that ran out along the bridge's fresh concrete.

The boy roared, rose to a crouch and turned warily. "It's not real!" he railed. "None of this! It's just more of your tricks!" The boy gathered his chakra and pushed out with it, at which the guei's illusions broke apart and he found himself restored to the dark, rain-soaked battlefield.

He dropped his head quickly to look, but Desdemona had vanished from his grip. In her place, a proxy of sodden earth and grass remained – raised there by her substitution jutsu.

Naruto laughed grimly as he turned to face the seven guei, and his flicking tongue licked at the corner of his mouth. "Is that the best you got?" he sneered.

Tyrant stepped forward with a look of disdain clear on his spectral face. But before he could utter even a single disparaging syllable Naruto leaped again to the attack. The gueis' fearful energies slashed and seized at the possessed genin in undulant coruscations as his blurring orange shape sped around the ancient temple, arced evasively up and along the ancient standing stones which shattered explosively behind him as his adversaries' attacks went astray.

While the temple's precincts erupted in splattering flames, and strokes of lightning struck down from the boiling heavens, the leaf-ninja charged; with him came the ominous shade of another – a true monster that had been sealed within him years ago, but always sought escape, always probed and pried at the edges and seams of its human prison. Somewhere within Naruto, it grinned mirthlessly. Maybe this night it could again savor the color, texture and inimitable smell of blood, and the thrill of destruction though vicariously through his host. Maybe this night, the pathetic vessel of delicious flesh and tantalizing blood that contained him would not thwart him as he had before.

Like water flowing through sand, the demon's power filled Naruto in a flood of chakra. His fists and clawed fingers smashed and tore at the guei whose powers had been surpassed and now found themselves battered and blown like leaves caught in a hurricane.

Yet as savagely as he fought, as much as each of his furious swipes ripped through his ghostly adversaries, again and again they reformed then rejoined the fray. With time, even the enraged Naruto felt a pang of doubt at the most fearsome of the guei's powers – they would never stop, never tire, and could not be killed for they were dead already.

As his rage gave way, the tiny pore that linked him to the Nine-tailed Fox's nearly-infinite reservoirs of power sealed shut. As its residual, demonic energies waned, the leaf-ninja faltered. It was only for a moment, but it was enough. Manciple's chains coiled all around him, writhing like metal eels. They seized around his waist with a strength that eclipsed what the spirit had only moments earlier, and sent Naruto flying. The boy's twisting, pin-wheeling form smashed into one of the temple's remaining monoliths; its thick stone, that had endured age after pitiless age, shattered like glass under the impact and crumbled to the earth.

"At last, at last!" crowed Manciple, who jumped up and down, but his ecstatic utterance was not at Naruto's defeat. "Now we are complete!"

* * *

Shaken, the fallen ninja saw through the rain and his own swimming vision that there were now eight ghosts instead of seven. His face fell at the sight.

Orphan stood there amongst them, barely recognizable from the living, breathing person he'd been not so long ago. His shadowed figure glowed, but his eyes and the character branded on his cheek blazed as bright as the sun. The guei stared blankly at Naruto, his ghostly countenance lit by the dying flames of battle, then flinched away as their eyes met.

"Please, Naruto," Orphan gasped pitifully. His swords blazed white as they flashed reflected lightning – weapons he couldn't abandon even if he wished to, for they were wrapped tightly to broken hands. "Don't look at me like this."

"Tomoki…," uttered Naruto desolately, then took a slow, hobbling step that splashed through the rising water.

The fearsome shades drew themselves up as their powers surged to their pinnacle, all but Orphan who remained solemn.

Desdemona Shan, completely drenched now too from the continuing storm, laughed into the rain-swept darkness. "It is done!" her voice rang. "My Jutsu of the Eight Regrets is done. When I unleash the power of my guei, humanity will be consumed in the fires of its own wretchedness. From the ashes of the old, a new world will be given the chance to rise – a wiser, kinder world, having learned from the mistakes of the past. "But first, a simple task," she said and glared at Naruto, then swiveled toward the newly-come spirit. "Tomoki, kill this interloper."

Naruto's brow rose in alarm as he startled, but the ghostly genin stood completely still as if he hadn't heard.

"Oh!" the Empress realized and raised her long, delicate fingers to her cheek. "My mistake…I meant to say: Orphan, do as I command!"

The leaf ninja watched his friend's ghost look up then quiver tensely as he warred against her influence.

The woman grunted sharply. "We're wasting precious time here," she spat then turned her head. "Manciple, finish what you started."

Manciple looked at his mistress, grinned, then flung himself at Naruto who braced for the attack as the guei bore down on him.

A harsh clang of metal resounded as Manciple's shackles struck against Orphan's swords. Naruto fell back as their two conflicting energies collided just before him with an explosion of cold fire that sent waves of standing water rolling away from them.

"Huh?!" the leaf-ninja blurted with surprise, then wiped the rain from his face and stared at the tense tableau. "All-right Tomoki!" he shouted encouragingly.

The two guei stood there stalemated for a moment, with neither advancing nor retreating.

"You went about it all wrong, Naruto," Orphan explained at last in a critical voice, though his eyes remained locked on Manciple's.

The blond genin stared then gritted his teeth. "Oh, yeah?!" he answered loudly as his disputatious nature rose, "What do you mean by that?!"

"Each of us is tied here by things we can't give up. It's a flaw in Desdemona's summoning jutsu." Orphan spared Naruto a glance, then admitted, "And a flaw in our own selves."

The senior guei looked at Orphan aghast as they pushed against each other, deadlocked – his iron cuffs scraping and sparking against the pitted edges of his fellow ghost's swords. "Tomoki!" Manciple blurted in a hurt, stung voice. "What are you saying? Why did you tell him that?"

Orphan dropped aside in a blur of motion, pivoted then struck. His folded steel sliced through Manciple's shackled wrists with the sound of a bell. Whirling low then, the ghost slashed low and cut through the shackles around Manciple's ankles.

The stricken guei staggered back with a look of anguished betrayal on his face. "Brother?" he gasped, then the brand on his cheek flashed white as he dissolved into nothingness.

Naruto's mouth fell open but then quickly pressed shut with renewed determination. Now he had an ally, and knew the guei's secret -- their one hidden weakness.

Orphan watched numbly as Manciple faded away. "I told you," he offered flatly, "don't call me that."

"Orphan!" Desdemona's strident, appalled voice shrieked over the wind and rain. "What have you done?!"

The ghost rounded on her belligerently. "Did you really think it'd be that easy?!" he shouted back. "Did you think I'd sign up for whatever stupid plan you dreamed up? Did you think you could just carve a character into my head and I'd do everything you say?!" Orphan staggered, looked around wildly, then braced his forearms against the luminous, sigil-covered Omphalos. "Even if we were all together; even if I did join your cause, if humanity could be destroyed or shaped so easily, don't you think someone smarter, stronger or crazier than you would have done it by now?" he continued acidly. "Look at you. How many have you sent to their deaths in your hundreds of years as Empress…how many? It was only when your own son died that you understood what life is: precious and fleeting. Isn't that what Bode was trying to tell you?"

The boy-ghost buried his face in his crossed, handless arms and wept, while Desdemona stood there in shock. The other guei glanced at each other tentatively, whether moved by Orphan's declarations or horrified by Manciple's dissolution.

Naruto's lips trembled and his tears mingled with the rain. As he reached out for the distraught spirit, Orphan raised his head toward the Empress with a fearful scowl on his face.

"And you…and you _killed me for this_," he spat vengefully, pointed his sword then screamed: _"You heartless bitch, you killed me!"_ Orphan's preternatural stare seemed to cut through the atmosphere. He stepped around the Omphalos toward her. Raising and crossing his weapons up before him, the guei's expression hardened. "Look at what you did to me. You took my hands too. Swords are all I have!" The apparition shook with unsettling laughter. "I suppose I should be grateful for that. After all, most people don't get to take their revenge from beyond death…and yet, here I stand."

Orphan stopped and canted his head introspectively. "You know," he admitted, "I've only ever killed one other person; 'not much of a record for a ninja. You're going to be number two – my second and last." Desdemona retreated a step as a look of concern dawned across her face. Orphan turned deliberately toward his wraith brethren. "Of course, I'm going to kill all of you too. After all, nothing good can come from me letting any of you run around loose."

* * *

The ghost, Orphan, swiveled slowly toward Sycophant whose expression contorted with dismay, then vanished in a burst of speed. Condemned and Tyrant, quicker to respond to this alarming turn of events, surged to head off their rebellious brother and transformed into bilious clouds of churning light. The remaining three, Diseased, Vagrant and Zealot lowered their brows and stepped forward, but were confronted at once by Naruto who put his hands together in a sequence of seals and hissed: "Shadow-Clone Jutsu!"

As the last echoes of the leaf-ninja's voice died into a peal of thunder, scores and scores of Narutos' surrounded the ghostly three. "Heh-heh," he growled. "You didn't think I was going to let Tomoki have all the fun, did you?"

The three guei held back for a moment, recalling how viciously the boy had fought.

Zealot grinned paternally, seeming peaceful in his religious robes. "My boy, whatever terrible power it was that lifted you earlier has gone," he observed in a deep basal voice then shook his head. "Tricks like this will not save you."

Naruto met his eyes, rain streaming down his face. "Tomoki's dead," he answered grimly then winced at a pain from his side. "But he hasn't given up. So the least I can do is see this through."

Without another word, his clones attacked en masse with kunai knives drawn. Vagrant and Diseased waved their arms, unleashing a pulse of rippling force that slashed through and scattered the attacking army. Most of the ninja leaped away, others tumbled insensate to the rain-soaked ground, while others vanished in bursts of dispersed chakra.

Zealot strode forward then knelt. As he pressed his palm against the wet ground, he channeled his essence downward and possessed it. Thick coils of earth erupted upward, swept at the masses of dodging, orange figures then coiled around the one who'd never left his eyesight. "I know that's you -- the original, I mean," the guei boasted. "So much for your tricks as well as your noble sensibilities."

The earthen tentacles constricted sharply, breaking bones and rupturing organs. But as the satisfied ghost looked again, he saw that what extruded though those clutches was not flesh and blood, but a proxy of earth and grass.

While the battle between his brothers, Vagrant and Diseased, and Naruto's clone army raged, Zealot snarled in frustration. The wraith looked up suddenly with the feeling that something was wrong, then looked to his left and right. Two fallen Narutos beside him came to life, sat up and looked back at him, grinning. These two had not been knocked out as he'd thought, but left as a trap! The ghost flinched back in alarm, but it was too late. The clones' kunai knives slashed and sliced through his prayer beads, which glowed as they scattered into the darkness then went out one by one…mere moments before Zealot himself did.

Diseased wailed his dismay and grabbed at where Zealot had stood. "No!" he croaked. "Brother, come back!"

Kunai knives thudded into his chest, but they held no chakra and did no damage. The guei looked up and his eyes radiated white through the slits in his bandages. At a single wave of his arm, all the Narutos before him were stricken with seizures and bloody eruptions. They writhed in agony and vanished, then all the rest vanished…all but one.

Grunting with satisfaction, Diseased marched toward the afflicted leaf-ninja who huddled miserably on his knees and elbows in the inches-deep water. The guei raised his foot and kicked Naruto over so he could see the feverish look in his prey's defeated eyes. Thus satisfied, he held out his hand in the palm of which were collected the gruesome deaths of a thousand plagues.

* * *

Sycophant, meanwhile, crumbled under Orphan's onslaught. As wildly as she fended and fled, and though her blasts of explosive, supernatural force shattered the gloomy landscape, the elegant hand-mirror that anchored her to the physical realm did not last long against the hunting swipes of brother's swords which slashed the curio from her desperate grasp. The woman watched its bright fragments tumble into space then twinkle out like dying embers, one after the other. A look of terrible realization paled her countenance before she too evanesced into oblivion.

Condemned and Tyrant, infuriated beyond measure, threw themselves at Orphan with a riot of clashing energies. Back and forth, their battle unfolded. Condemned snatched off his precious hat and kept it tightly in hand, determined not to suffer the same fate as Manciple and Sycophant. In the end, though, Orphan had been a trained swordsman in life and remained one in death. He kept his two enemies positioned against each other until he was ready to strike, then the point of his weapon found Condemned's hand and pierced through it and his hat. Drawing it free, Orphan held it aloft then cut it to ribbons with a pair of whirling figure-eights. The defeated guei bubbled with tears as he grabbed at the spinning, glowing tatters.

"Well done," Tyrant complimented him dryly as Condemned slowly disappeared. "But you can't hope to prevail against me. Even as spirits, there are those meant to lead and those meant to follow; those who cleave through the seas of existence with ambition as their prow, and those who are tossed about on its waves."

Orphan looked at him curiously for a moment then shut his eyes and raised his sword high, pointing straight upwards into the rain.

Tyrant paused. "I'll bite," he began, "what kind of tactic is this?"

"That's kind of neat trick you guys --," Orphan broke off then corrected himself, "us guys have: controlling elements, I mean. So, I thought I'd give it a try."

The elder guei glanced at him skeptically, then looked up too into the murk which flashed again. A grin crossed his face. "It's a decent idea," he ventured. "But lightning can't hurt us."

"Not you, maybe," offered the former genin, "and not me. But I'm willing to bet your fabric-wrapped friend might have a problem."

The heavens growled as a cascading net of lightning crackled across the black sky then flashed down into Orphan's offered blade. As it entered him, he possessed then redirected it. Canting his other sword over his opposite shoulder, the blast erupted forth from it in the blink of an eye and caught Diseased squarely in the back. The surprised guei's bandages flamed and blew apart.

"Huh, that went better than expected," Orphan quipped, then returned his full attention to the annoyed Tyrant. "Now, what were you saying?" he began rhetorically. "Oh, yeah, you were so proud of yourself because life gave you a better deal than most." The junior spirit smiled and gestured. "But take a look around. You have no armies to fight for you anymore, no legions of servants and bodyguards to clear this pitiful orphan from your path. It's only you and me – the orphan and the tyrant," he lowered his brow then stated significantly, "_the only ones left!"_

Tyrant startled at the boy's pronouncement, and looked away in alarm for his other brothers and sisters -- exactly the opening Orphan hoped for. He shot forward, slashing with both blades, one after the other in continuous succession. Each stroke flashed blinding white, like the lightning above, as he channeled his preternatural energies through them.

The other guei fell back, confused, surprised and unable to counter as the blows rained down. As Tyrant tried to get some distance from his unrelenting brother, a gold pocket-watch, solid and real, tumbled from his substance. "No!" he gasped horribly as he reached out for it, but it was too late. Orphan's expert stokes parted the night and, with it, Tyrant's last hope.

* * *

Naruto huddled on his knees and elbows. His head pounded and his skin burned with fever. His joints ached; his muscles stiffened, and his stomach was gripped in nausea. He'd been sick before, but never like this. He'd felt pain before, but never anything so excruciating and pervasive -- like his every organ had betrayed him, like his body was rotting away.

A sudden pressure knocked him over and he fell with a splash. Cold rain blinded his eyes and pattered against his face. Standing over him in the darkness, loomed the horrible guei, Diseased. Naruto tried to move aside, but found he could not manage anything more than a palsied tremor.

The bandaged monster lowered his outstretched hand toward him and there was a loud pop and a brilliant flash that made the ninja recoil and press his eyes press shut. As it became clear to him that he was still alive, Naruto forced himself to roll away blindly through the water and mud. When at last he could clear the dazzling spots from his eyes, he could see that Diseased smoked and smoldered from a great, gaping void through his torso. Sparks and embers flew up from the blasted edges of the guei's bandaged form, which were quickly swallowed up by the greedy rain, while what was left of him wobbled and lurched about drunkenly.

An idea took shape in the genin's mind – how he could beat Vagrant. _How easy is this going to be! Yeah,_ he thought, _I'll just use my genjutsu to transform into Diseased, wait for her to come and try to help, then wham!_ He tried to force himself up, but his infected body would not obey.

Vagrant moaned as Diseased swayed a final time then faded away. Somewhere out in the darkness there echoed the sounds of battle from Orphan and his demonic brethren.

_Get up, loser!_ Naruto thought furiously, invoking his rival Sasuke's familiar, repetitive epithet to fire him to action, but even that was no use. The world spun like a carnival ride. His stumbling feet slipped in the mud and he fell into a limp heap. _Get…up,_ he again urged himself, but even the thought was agonizing. "No…," he mumbled wretchedly.

Never before had he let himself, or anyone else, down like this. How many times had he failed? How many times had he fallen only to rise to try again? How many times had he pushed himself beyond the limits of endurance, only to reach a higher plateau of strength? It was his greatest attribute; one that bespoke the essence of his very soul, yet this time it wasn't working. This time he would not prevail in the end as he had so often before. _I…I can't go out like this – a…a loser, a disgrace,_ he hissed vehemently to himself where he lay, with his head soaking in water, his unresponsive body showered by cold rain.

Slow footfalls splashed toward him, and though Naruto could barely raise his head he knew it was Vagrant. The woman hovered there for long moments then sank down and sat beside him. The seconds passed like an eternity, as Naruto waited for the end – for the guei to extend her powers and crush out his life.

Her tinny, unmelodic voice broke the rain's rhythm. "You really cared about him, didn't you?"

The genin attempted to speak, but pain coursed through his body while hallucinations and random thoughts warred in his mind. It was all he could do to keep himself focused. "T…Tom…," he burbled.

"Tomoki," Vagrant finished for him. "That was his name, I know." The guei cast a cross look off into the distance. "He's a fighter, that's for sure…and you too. I guess you don't need me to tell you that," she laughed sourly. "I envy him for having a friend like you." The ghost patted his arm. "You were really pissed off when Desdemona turned him into one of us, weren't 'cha? Oh, I could tell. I'm sensitive like that."

The leaf-ninja's eyes rolled and flickered as his body started to curl up, constricted involuntarily by Diseased's attack. He willed his gnarled hands to reach for the hidden arsenals of kunai knives and shuriken he carried, but they would not go.

Lightning flared then and lit up Vagrant's homely face with a series of stroboscopic flashes. "I'll spare you all the things that happened to me that tossed me out of our nice, warm apartment and out onto the street. But you better know that none of us, and I mean none of us, are ever so far from the dirt that we can't fall and end up there." Her ghoulish cheek twitched, moving the scarred character that bore her name as a guei. "I just wish --," she broke off abruptly and raised a pale hand to her forehead. "I just wish that someone would have cared about me the way you did about him…just a kind word, just to say that it mattered to them," the ghost sniffled. "The Shan woman didn't kill me. She didn't have to."

The ghost looked up suddenly and changed the subject. "Just to let you know, your boy just finished Condemned. Damn…I should've known Desdemona's plan would end bad."

She turned back toward Naruto, grimaced weakly then looked away. "You're going to die, you know. Diseased got you with, well, a disease. Now, I'm not trying to rub it in. I just…I just wanted you to know that I know how much that sucks, being sick, dying outside in the rain like this. And I didn't want you to die alone…the way I did."

For a moment, the guei's story cut through Naruto's delirium and brought to his fevered mind back to lucidity. "S…sorry," he managed to mutter.

"Thanks," Vagrant replied with a far-way smile. "Hey, would you like to see something?" She reached into her vest pocket and produced a photograph – a wedding photo of her in much happier times, arm in arm with a reasonable-looking man. Both expressions radiated hope and dreamy contentment. The falling rain spattered against the picture and slid down its glossy, unmarked surface.

"Surprised?" she asked. "Well, I wasn't always a guei, you know." She took up the boy's clammy hand and pressed it into his grasp. "Why don't you take it? By now I should have given up all that stuff about what was and might have been." The ghost drew a deep breath – a reflex only from habit. "Ah, I'm no good like this. Holding on to the past…it's keeping me from what I need to do next."

Putting her hands on her knees, she rocked to her feet then looked down at the ailing boy. "For what it's worth, Naruto," Vagrant offered, "I hope I'm wrong about you dying."

Naruto shifted slightly, with the rain and mud pooling up around his prostrate form, and watched her go then looked again at the keepsake she'd given him from her former life. She'd been alive once and loved. The genin stared into it, past its slick face and the colored chemicals that comprised it, into the world it presented.

He knew what he had to do; what Vagrant wanted him to do – to destroy this trace and set her free from the Shan Empress's spell. _But how…how can I?_ the thought assailed him. _This is the only thing left of her that proved she ever existed!_ As he lay there, settling slowly into a trace brought by the rainfall's caress and pattering sounds, another thought occurred to him. _No, it's not the only thing,_ he amended. _She could have killed me, but instead she talked to me and shared this piece of herself. It's not this picture that proves she lived, but my memories of her kindness._

Naruto's eyelids fluttered, struggling to stay open. He looked at the dead woman's picture one last time, then slowly tore it – an effort that took all of his will and the last of his strength. As the two halves started to glow, they dropped from his quaking hands then flowed off on the surface of the water…away and out of sight.

* * *

Orphan, the last of the guei, walked uncontested over the rain-drenched battlefield. Everywhere he looked there were craters brimmed with water and muck, and shattered fragments of stone from the ruined temples' monoliths. As the rain pounded and the sky flashed with lighting and roared with thunder, it occurred to the recently-deceased boy that this was exactly the sort of place that wrought within the depths of the human imagination the presence of demons and spirits…like himself.

_Not a bad place to haunt,_ he mused sardonically, though he found it hard to accept this new identity. Never in life had he pictured himself like this – a wraith whose passage evoked terror in the timid and fascination in the minds of those cursed with susceptibility to the fanciful.

It did not take Orphan long to find what he sought, and he looked down at Naruto's still form which lay in a deepening pool of rainwater. This time, he was glad for his friend's orange outfit which had made him that much easier to spot.

Out of pure reflex, he knelt to pick him up, only to rediscover that his hands were gone replaced with swords and the knots of white bandages the girl, Reona, had wrapped. Chuckling briefly at his mistake, he directed his essence into the ground which welled up beneath the unconscious figure and transported him to a higher, drier area sheltered somewhat by what remained of one of the standing-stones.

That accomplished, he turned quickly to go but then lurched to a stop. Turning back, his gaze fell on the slack, scarred features of Naruto's face. It was clear he'd been through a lot. Diseased had afflicted him with contagions that would have killed even the strongest ninja. But this number-one, hyperactive genin of the Hidden Leaf Village was far from normal. Even unconscious, with his temperature flaring and breath racing, Naruto's hidden powers were fighting it and would heal him back as good as new. Of this, the guei was certain.

Orphan's cheek twitched. _Don't do this,_ he warned himself. _Don't do this, don't!_ Despite himself, he couldn't help but look again at he genin. _Naruto_…he thought as he remembered all they'd been through. _My friend, my…beautiful friend._ The ghost staggered for a moment, overcome with emotion, then righted himself and sighed. _How many things about you I'll never forget…how funny you are, your courage, your strength, your selflessness._ A smile cut through his grief. _Your laugh – like a braying donkey, your face sloppy with ramen._

A sharp gust of wind pelted his quasi-real form with rain, but he didn't feel it. Orphan looked again at the haggard genin, whose normally spiky blond hair was plastered flat to his skull by all the rain, and his expression pained.

"If I'd have known I was going to die today, I would have told you," he said aloud in a cracking, hesitant voice, then shut his eyes and gulped. "And I would have told you how much I'm going to miss you…y-you ridiculous loser who wants to be Hokage so bad. But then you probably would have laughed." The guei reached up to rub his face, then again realized his mistake. Forcing a frown, Orphan continued raggedly, "In a way though, I'm glad you're unconscious…otherwise you'd just say something stupid, right?"

His one-way conversation ceased as he sensed the approach of another. Lifting his head, he turned to face the Shan Empress who stood there alone, forlorn and draped in soggy, red robes.

Orphan's eyes rose and his deep, rolling laugh was worthy of any haint described in gothic literature. "You look like a cat left out in the rain," he observed.

She stared at him disgustedly, then her fingers flew together and apart in a rapid sequence of seals.

"What do you going to do, Empress?" the guei interrupted, "kill me?"

Desdemona stopped, and let her arms fall limply to her sides. "You," she intoned. "You ruined everything."

"Did I?" said Orphan with an absent shrug. "Sorry," he offered half-heartedly. The spirit grinned at her edgily, with a tolerance stretched to its limit then pushed past her.

She stared after him then wailed to his back, "So that's the end of it?"

"Almost," the ghost answered without turning or slowing his pace.

The Empress raced after him as he approached the Omphalos, still untouched after all that had transpired.

"This is how you did it, isn't it?" asked Orphan, who gestured at it. "That's why it's been storming so badly. You tapped into the power of the earth's meridians to summon us." He looked at her askance. "Intelligence, wit, wealth and immortality," the dead boy listed. "You have more than anyone could possibly ask for, and yet for all of that you are completely worthless." Orphan sighed then looked around, taking in the oppressive rain, the darkness and the spoiled remnants of the old temple. "I'm going to miss all this," he said as if to himself then, taking notice again of his rain-soaked follower, added: "not this place specifically, you understand…I mean life in general. I really thought I'd have more time, you know? Maybe I could've made something of myself, helped someone out, found true love…"

Before he could become lost in his regrets the ghost drew back and struck the point of his right sword into the ancient stone, which penetrated with a harsh _clink_. He then stamped his foot forcefully into the flat of the blade and bent it until it snapped.

Desdemona's amethyst eyes flickered up at him. "Kill me too, Tomoki," she said despondently.

The wraith appraised her then slowly approached. With a movement as slow and smooth as the passage of the hour-hand, he raised the point of his remaining sword to just below her breastbone.

"A single thrust would go all the way through," Orphan opined as his eyes found hers, and he could sense her expectation. But then he explained, "It's just that easy to kill someone," and let the blade come away. "Forget it," he commanded and turned his back to her. "Live, I insist. Live on with the memory of everything that happened here tonight. Live with how you betrayed the memory of your dead son, and how you killed me."

Orphan returned to the Omphalos, plunged in the point of his left-hand sword then snapped it before he could endure any second thoughts. As the broken weapons bandaged to his hands started to glow, as well as the fragments stuck in the stone, Orphan closed his eyes to await his passage to the afterlife.

Just then, a crack opened in the earth beside the Omphalos. Orphan gaped at Desdemona who looked down at it from the other side with eyes that were wide with surprise. "It's not me," the guei explained in honest alarm as the rupture in the earth widened and water bubbled up. The ground heaved suddenly and the drenched Empress fell as the schism grew into a crevasse. The ghost looked out, frozen with disbelief as Plaza Lithica and the dark and distant castle teetered.

Throwing himself to the ground and knowing he had little time left, Orphan drove his broken swords into the soft earth and possessed it. It was then that he knew the truth: the rotted underpinnings of Castle Omphalos…the foundations, basements, and crawlspaces that had been built over and abandoned were crumbling away. The continuous, torrential rain and overflowing rivers had flooded and filled those voids, weighing and pressing on the structures of inundated earth and eroded stone that were never meant to contain such forces.

Screaming into the darkness as he reached out with his supernatural energy, thick ropes and coils of earth and stone on Orphan's side of the divide flew across the widening rift to catch hold of the other. For a moment, the gulf held steady, and the ninja-spirit strained even harder as he tried to force it to rejoin.

The ghost's face locked in a rictus of desperation. His power would not be enough, and he could feel himself fading….fading away. His substance was evaporating again into the ether from which it came. As Orphan stared helplessly toward the distance, the lightning flashed. In that moment, the last moment of his existence, he saw the Shan Empress along with half of Plaza Lithica, and the imposing profile of Castle Omphalos wrack, crumble, then vanish over the edge of the plateau.


	11. The Divine World

Death -- it wasn't anything like Tomoki expected it to be. Of course, it hadn't been the last time either. One moment, he struggled furiously to mend the widening rift in the ground then, failing that and with his supernatural powers all spent, watched helplessly as Castle Omphalos fell off the face of the earth. An instant later, he watched the continuing spectacle unfold from an ever widening distance as the limiting concepts of time, space and self faded before the irrelevance of a new world that existed beyond being.

In that final moment, he felt the others join him – the thousands that transcended with him from the still tumbling ruins of the great castle. Surprise and exhilaration followed as they realized together how illusory were all the things they'd thought separated them: male and female, young and old, rich and poor, strong and weak; and how insignificant were all those divisions founded on allegiance and ideology.

In that final moment, he saw the brief flicker of his life and those of everyone else's – all those who'd come before him and all those who were yet to be. That separation too was an illusion. Tomoki recognized them, each and every one, as they did him.

The tiny comet that had been his life flickered before him and he saw how it had continued on after those of his family, friends and countrymen ended one day, years ago.

He saw the way each bright, magnificent spark interacted with every other and knew then that no lives were ever unimportant no matter how fleeting or remote.

In that final moment, the boy perceived his time in Konoha and the lives of all the others. Tomoki easily picked out Naruto's thread and followed it back and forth. For awhile he and Naruto existed apart, like two parallel lines. They shared the same time and the same proximity, yet never intersected until the warps and eddies of the cosmos bent their trajectories to cross…together with Xiaomei's; their two continued on while hers did not.

He saw then his life's ending point, now entirely without regret, but then looked on into the future to where Naruto's life went out so soon after his own. Sasuke Uchiha's followed almost immediately afterward, and Sakura Haruno's.

Stubborn memories surfaced. A sense of panic and pain flared as all the lives in the Village Hidden in the Leaves began to go out at once, from young Konohamaru to his grandfather, the Hokage himself.

With his awareness extended by his transition, he saw lives everywhere abruptly end in all the hidden villages – a great and terrifying mass-extinction of humanity unlike anything ever before seen.

* * *

When Naruto's eyes fluttered open, he found himself alone in the misting rain with the broken topped ruins of a standing-stone jutting just over him. Gasping then as he realized how cold he was, chilled down to the bone in his torn, drenched clothes, the boy hugged himself then tried to piece together all that had happened.

It was no easy task. His thoughts hovered and he could barely tell past from present or what was dream from what was real. Foremost in his memories loomed a hideous, bandaged figure -- that terrible ghost, one of the seven… no, eight guei that Desdemona had conjured to take vengeance upon the entire world. It had been his wrath that had struck Naruto down, even below what the vast and hidden powers of the Nine-Tailed Fox could sustain.

And he remembered too how Vagrant had spared him, not from love or kinship, but out of pity. The ghost had shared with him her story instead, understanding that Naruto's suffering allowed him to understand hers. She'd saved his life and he'd mourned her death.

The blond genin's trembling, water-wrinkled fingers reached toward his scarred face and noted, without comfort, that his fever seemed a little better and his wounds were smaller than he recalled, though his ribs still ached terribly from some injury he could not remember getting.

Spurred to action not by the unrelenting chill in the air but by the notion that he had forgotten something…something important, Naruto stumbled to his feet and wandered through the flooded landscape.

The storm's fury had passed and the air moved in mild, fitful gusts. The gloomy sky was calm but still lit from time to time with receding sparkles of distant lightning. Of what had been the fragrant and colorful Plaza Lithica, there was nothing left recognizable. The immaculate, green lawns and expansive flower beds had washed away, and everywhere toppled trees lay with their deathly-white roots left naked and exposed.

The genin soon discovered that Castle Omphalos, the seat of power in Earth Country, was no more. Only a ragged drop-off at the edge of the plateau marked the trace of where it had been. Down below, the Village Hidden Among the Stones was drowned and partially in ruins. The fallen castle along with its massive foundations and labyrinthine sublevels, mountains of earth and great hunks of rock sprawled over toppled buildings. The five rivers that once flowed through the castle down into awaiting basins and aqueducts now poured into the streets, marooning entire blocks in lakes of rubble and murky water.

From his vantage high-above Naruto could discern vaguely the scattered clusters of people who gathered at the water's edges, scurried over the wreckage or sat in its midst in shock and disconsolation.

The boy blinked at the sight and swayed unsteadily on the precipice, still reeling from the effects of the guei, Diseased's, curse which magnified the vivid intensity of everything he encountered, but at the same time made them float with a surreal, dreamlike quality that was at once both fascinating and terrifying.

Walking now…he was walking, though he wasn't sure where until, when his staring eyes looked down, he discovered the lifeless body of someone he'd known. How horrible it seemed: it's mangled, broken fingers; its clothing soaked from rain, cut to ribbons and stained dark with blood and earth. The genin turned away at how ghastly, distorted, pale and vacant Tomoki's face seemed without his spirit and personality to animate it. It was exactly what it seemed – an untenanted shell.

Naruto stood and stared for a long time until it seemed to him that nothing existed beyond the few feet of space surrounding him. He knelt then beside the body of his dead friend and lingered there in the darkness with elbows draped over knees.

* * *

It seemed to Naruto that he'd slept, awoke, then slept again. But either way, everything always seemed dark, either pitch black or dull grey, which made it difficult to tell or gauge the passage of time; not that it mattered to him.

Presently, through genin's fogged senses, he grew aware that he was no longer alone. There was someone else here -- an old man in white robes and a broad, conical, red and white hat.

Naruto looked up dully into the Hokage's impassive, weathered and grey-goateed face, but this time he wasn't fooled. The young ninja's rational mind had yielded to weariness and allowed him to see this man for what he was: an image only, a projection of the strange being it accompanied. In the Hokage's midst walked a creature -- something like a deer but much greater in size and with a singular horn at the center of a wide, equine forehead. Clouds whirled along scaled flanks which gleamed with many hues. Its eyes were tunnels into forever; within them glimpses of the infinite.

"Oh," Naruto remarked in a listless, tremulous voice, finding it easier to focus on the comforting disguise rather than the challenging reality, "it's you again."

The old man surveyed the wreckage of Plaza Lithica, and seemed to appreciate that it had been beautiful once. "Tell me, young man," the newcomer intoned patiently as he turned his kind yet stern visage toward Naruto. "How long do you plan to sit there and dwell upon your lost friend?"

For awhile the boy expressed no reaction, but then his mouth fell open and he offered simply: "Until I'm done."

A grimace of disapproval worked its way over the Hokage's expression. "Everyone dies in time, Naruto," he explained with a trace of the real ninja-lord's wisdom and compassionate inflections, yet somehow there was something there that didn't seem quite right. This imposter's purpose was to convince, not comfort. "Many succumb to accident, misadventure, stupidity, or the thousands of frailties inherent to mortal existence," continued Naruto's visitor sagely. "Tomoki died putting an end to the Shan Empress, Desdemona's appalling and unnatural jutsu, which would have wracked the earth in war and slain thousands of thousands. You should take comfort in that."

"He," Naruto piped, sniffled, then wiped his nose with a wet sleeve, "was my friend…ya' know?"

The robed man raised a grey eyebrow then looked at him uncertainly with hands clasped behind his back.

"I…I've got this thing," the boy went on, trying desperately to explain, "this monster inside me, but he didn't care. When this crazy crane-spirit trapped me under this big bell because of that, Tomoki came and got me. Who else would do that, huh?" Naruto paused and bit his lip as he started to quake. "And you know how I thanked him?" his voice crested shrilly, then cracked. "I punched him right in the face!" he answered and tapped a trembling fist into his palm. "Some friend I am. I don't even remember why."

The Hokage's double regarded him with what passed for a sympathetic expression and somehow the genin understood that it was not his strange visitor's intention to be aloof, but that it was not human or mortal and was thus unable to appreciate the true qualities of his grief.

"If he was your friend," the figure answered in a voice that flowed like mist on the wind, "then the very last thing he'd wish is for you to waste away mourning him. Do you imagine that Tomoki would draw any comfort from your sitting there -- squatting in the dark, in the mud like that?" The Hokage paused for a moment to allow the question to answer itself, then smiled charitably. "He fulfilled his destiny, but you, Naruto, have only begun."

Naruto scoffed, "What destiny do I have? Tomoki died because I was so fixed on training, and beating stupid Neji that I forgot all about him." The blond boy's bloodshot, blue eyes, dimmed by tears, looked up at the old man. "I just…I just wanted to be a chunin so bad, to be some kind of big-shot! It's my fault he's dead; it's all my --."

"Stop being a fool!" the Hokage commanded suddenly, regally, but without anger in a tone that shook Naruto to his core. "That boy's entire life lead to this, shaped by circumstances, yes, but by his choices too." The man's ancient countenance lit. "He could have refused his mission, or left at anytime; he could have joined the Shan Empress then protracted his existence as a guei -- inhuman but immortal. No one wants to die, Naruto, but sometimes there's nothing for it. Death is life's natural consequence and, as you have seen for yourself, there are worse alternatives." A wind, heavy with vapor, whispered over them like the breath of the world, stirring through the old man's robes.

"For much of his life he lived only for revenge." The Hokage's face tightened into a mirthless smile as he nodded to himself, then concluded: "But in the end he died nobly and on his own terms. Surely, you must take solace in that."

Naruto listened, grit his teeth then looked away neither convinced nor consoled.

"This pains me," his advisor spat with genuine anger now, "the illusions you cling to and the truths you reject. I have already delayed myself too long in this useless effort. But Naruto, know this: if you remain here much longer, you too will die. That will not alter anything that's happened, but could change what will come in ways you cannot conceive!"

The visitor's tangible form wavered as if its own outburst had somehow un-tethered it from existence, which gave the boy another glimpse of the great, supernatural beast that hid within it. The false Hokage turned to look back at Naruto one last time to gage if his final plea had done any good then abandoned the idea and began to march off, his corporeality seeming to fade away with each passing step.

"Wait!" Naruto cried abruptly, pushed himself stiffly to his feet and slogged after him over slicks of mud and sheets of water. "Wait!" The ragged genin loped around before the Hokage and stood before him. "You," he gasped, then looked up with his eyes burning like sapphire flames, "you're really a qi-lin, right? That's what Tomoki called you…a…a…servant in the court of heaven."

The Hokage's eyes rose, seemingly insulted by Naruto's assertion, but he did not deny it.

"You can bring him back, can't you?" the boy pleaded in a heartbreaking voice. "Can't you…please?"

The figure stopped, momentarily taken-aback, then shook his head. "I'm sorry, Naruto." The Hokage, looking every bit of his apparent age, turned, knowing that what he was about to say would not bring the boy any comfort. "The only reason I'm involved in this matter at all is because Desdemona's plan was not her own. It was inspired by an entity like myself, equal and opposite, who took unfair advantage of her madness to drive her toward disrupting the natural flow of this world's energies.

"In countering it," the stranger with the familiar face went on, "I have great power and great latitude to destroy what is or create what is not, but none have the power to restore to life that which has already passed."

Naruto tensed and twitched as a storm of emotion gathered within him. "That can't be it!" he shouted suddenly into the Hokage's surprised face and shook him by the hems of his white robes which felt real enough, though bone dry, as he clutched them in both fists. "Are you listening?! You're the one who sent him on this stupid mission in the first place! And he went 'cause he wanted to impress who he _thought_ you were, 'cause after all that time he wanted you to know who he was and be proud of him." The genin gulped for breath before he was able to continue. His forehead and whisker-marked cheeks flushed, and tears pooled in his eyes. "Even after he found out you were a fake, he still went on with it because you said all those people were gonna die if he didn't. He was doing what you wanted him to and this is how you pay him back?! That's ridiculous; it's worthless!"

"I'm," the qi-lin startled, unsure for the first time of what to say, "truly sorry, Naruto. I'm…I'm only a servant. Such things are beyond me."

As quickly as the ragged and soaked genin's fury came, so it departed. His tense, white-knuckled grip dropped from the Hokage's robes and Naruto stumbled away. "But there," he wheezed desolately, "there has to be something you can do."

The old man's face fell as he closed his eyes and shook his head slightly with regret.

While the two figures regarded each other upon that dismal night, the wind again rose, making the branches creak and casting ripples over the broad pools of standing water.

Naruto straightened suddenly and his eyes flashed with resolve. "Then I'm not going anywhere!" the boy shouted impulsively at last. "I'm staying right here!" he confirmed and lashed his arm in a broad, sweeping arc, then pointed straight at the Hokage. "And I don't care if you don't like it!"

The imitative man's mouth dropped and the robed figure raised his arm after the boy. "But," he protested. "That's utterly senseless!"

The young leaf ninja, Naruto Uzumaki, gave him a cold look which said more clearly than words that he'd said all he was going to. Then he stomped back, splashing water and squishing mud, to where Tomoki lay, sat down and crossed his arms.

The unworldly visitor stared at him in utter disbelief before the expression drained from his face and he hung his head. Silence fell, and the ripples raised in the water from the angry genin's passage faded away.

The Hokage expressed a sigh. "I suppose I can ask," he muttered hesitantly.

"Yeah?" said Naruto. "You do that."

* * *

Laughter. Cruel, mocking laughter rang in Naruto's ears, overtaking his mind and pouring though his very essence. His young face flushed as he faced Iruka-sensei who stood by with a look of irritation and disappointment that made the aspiring student's heart sink. The boy then looked up dismally at the wood-fronted desks that rose up before him like magistrates' benches to bear the harsh judgment of his peers who hooted and roared at Naruto's sad attempt to mimic the Hokage with a basic transformation jutsu.

_This is a dream…just a memory,_ he realized without explicitly thinking it. The center of his attention was vivid and sharp with bright colors in a way that seemed more real than real, while the edges faded out into blurry irrelevance. Naruto asserted control over his memory in a passive, effortless sort of way, and turned that attention now to the two, the only two of his classmates present, who did not laugh – Sasuke Uchiha and Tomoki.

Sasuke returned Naruto's look with one of cool indifference which burned, in its own way, worse than scorn. Turning then toward Tomoki, he saw the quiet boy facing toward him. By every outward appearance he was engaged and attentive, but when Naruto looked closer he could see that the ordinary-looking boy's thoughts were far away.

The scene changed with a seamless quality the way dreams do. Naruto strutted now along the placid streets of Konoha, beaming with pride at the headband he wore which carried upon it the crest of the Hidden Leaf Village and identified him as a real ninja – a level of great accomplishment that no one could disparage.

As it happened, the man who'd given him that headband was passing by.

"Naruto," greeted Iruka-sensei in an amiable voice. The lean, pony-tailed man smiled at his former student and regarded him contemplatively. "I never thought I'd get to say this, but it looks good on you; like it belongs."

The new genin grinned ear to ear at his teacher's praise, then rested both hands behind his blond-haired head. "Thanks, sensei!"

The man nodded smartly, started to walk off, then turned back as he remembered something. "Oh, Naruto," he began. "You haven't seen Tomoki around, have you?"

The boy went blank for a moment as he tried to recall his quiet classmate.

"Well, if you do," allowed Iruka, "remind him to fill out his paperwork and that he needs to provide a photo for his official records."

"Um, sure, sensei," the boy agreed without enthusiasm, then snorted once his instructor was out of earshot. _As if I'm going to do any of them any favors!_ he thought.

The path of his dream dislocated him once again, yet still it did not seem, experientially, at all jarring, abrupt or discontinuous. He stood by now, disembodied, high in the aerie apartments of Castle Omphalos in the boudoir of Desdemona Shan, who lay huddled in her soaring, canopied bed, fully-dressed in black, mourning robes, whose long train of black lace poured off the edge of the bed out over the carpeted floor.

Untended embers smoldered in a towering fireplace mantled with polished marble. Artful tapestries adorned her walls and chandeliers hung from her ceilings. None of these things or the breathtaking powers she wielded could console her now through what she endured: an endless night when the soul calls upon itself for a reckoning.

The woman quaked and sweated, her hands clutched tight as she sought for the answers all men seek. A voice answered, but it was not her own. Naruto could see her again, a second Desdemona, standing over her then sitting by her side then orbiting her bed, offering comfort and explanations but in breaths that stank of the redolent earth, the sea and of hot iron. Her eyes were not any of the Shan family's colors, but dark and tunnel-deep. When Naruto averted the center of his attention he could make out the monstrous shape that abided within the other Empress, a great beast with three-heads -- one serpentine, one horned and hircine, and one leonine.

Iruka-sensei passed by again. It was later in the day, and this time the man's face was grim. "What's wrong, sensei?" asked Naruto, whereupon the chunin spun around.

"There's still no sign of Tomoki," he grumbled with clear agitation. His gloomy brows converged on the scar that passed under his eyes and across the bridge of his nose. "And he was supposed to get all his forms filled out today."

Naruto shrugged absently. "So he's late," the boy advanced. "What's the big deal?"

"The 'big deal', Naruto, is that no one's seen him." The instructor's dark eyes narrowed as he shook his head. "He's just up and vanished like a puff in the wind. I don't know if he fell asleep somewhere, if he's suddenly decided that he can blow off his responsibilities now that he's graduated, or if he's gotten hurt somehow…I just don't know."

The new genin's cerulean eyes blinked. He thought it odd for Iruka to indulge in speculation like this. "You think he's gotten hurt?"

"I tell you, he'd better have one hell of a good explanation," replied the scarred man. The dire tone of the normally easy-going and infinitely-tolerant Iruka-sensei riveted the boy. The effect was even more intense when Iruka turned to the young ninja and said: "Naruto, he could be a spy."

Naruto gaped at him, goggled eyed, and his fists clenched. "A spy?!"

"Well, why not?" The ninja threw up his arms then let them fall. "Mizuki was a spy and no one suspected him either." Iruka paced away a step to calm himself then pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. "No, Naruto," he amended now more softly, "I don't really think Tomoki's a spy. It's just that this is making me crazy…just like it made me crazy when you ran off."

"He...when I ran off?" babbled Naruto, whose thoughts were racing now faster than he could speak. His yellow eyebrows knitted. "I'm sure he'll show up."

Iruka sighed then started away. "Yeah, you're probably right."

As Naruto stared after him, his normal demeanor quickly returned and a Cheshire-cat grin blossomed over the boy's mischievous face. "Hehe, it's kinda funny sensei," the blond called out to his teacher in his raspy tenor; his sapphire eyes a-glow. "I don't think I've ever seen you this mad at anyone but me before!"

Iruka turned back towards him with an uncomplaining smile, but this time his eyes were tunnel-deep. "Enjoy the moment," he advised then added: "Seriously, if you see him, tell him…ah, forget it. I'll tell him myself."

* * *

Naruto startled awake at the strange sounds. His sudden motion sent mercuric trickles of water slithering down his face. The sky was still dark – a swirling stew of grey and black clouds, but they were breaking and a few gaps yielded a veiled view into a starlit indigo that was lightening just faintly with the dawn.

The young ninja, weary from exertion, disease, grief, and prolonged exposure to the rain and cold, looked around – his eyes darting in anxious, jerking motions.

Across the vast expanse of drowned wasteland that had been Plaza Lithica danced clusters and strings of scattered lights, like faeries in some underworld.

The genin blinked as some of the lights drew towards him, swaying and bobbing back and forth over the ground.

"What a mess," muttered one in a tired, nasally voice, "I sure never expected anything like this. I can't believe it's gone! I mean...just…gone."

"Mm-hmm," agreed it's companion stoically. "Who'd have thought? The Shan dynasty lasted over four-hundred years, and now they're done in a single night just 'cause of a little rain. Weird."

The lights came closer: stars dancing in the darkness.

"Hey, what's that?" said the first, as both lights blazed into beams that crossed over the swampy ground then froze, illuminating the cold and water-logged Naruto in their pitilessly-intense focus.

The bedraggled blond scowled and flinched away, then sent a shuriken hissing forth with a blurring motion of his arm.

A yelp of alarm followed as one of the offending lights went spinning off into space while the other fled.

Naruto issued a steaming breath into the cool air and resumed his meditative posture. After awhile, more lights came and more voices sounded in the dark stillness. This time there were quite a few of them. The lights made toward him, gathering speed as they came, until one of them corralled the others and ushered them back.

In the darkness the lights gathered into a cluster as they conferred, then sent forth a single, dim representative.

Footsteps squished toward him and Naruto's eyes rose toward a dim shape that gradually resolved itself into the figure of a young man dressed in a baggy, blue and white uniform and who carried a muted lantern. Naruto stared uncertainly and uncaringly, thinking that his goulashes and wide-brimmed rain-hat seemed silly. But then his eyes wandered over the newcomer's puzzled, somewhat familiar face, and started with recognition at the scar upon his cheek – a character that read 'Vagrant'.

"Hey," the stranger ventured as he moved toward him warily then knelt down so that they were at eye level. "You're, um…Naruto, right?"

The genin blinked slowly then nodded.

"I thought so. Oh, man!" the man gushed with relief, then laughed. "We've been looking feakin' everywhere for you. Lady Acacia said 'there'd be hell to pay' if we didn't find you and Tomoki." He looked again and took notice of the hollow, haunted look in the ninja's staring eyes. "My name's Wen, Naruto. We've never met, but that was me Tomoki was talking to near the road outside of the Princess in Exile's cottage. Do you remember?" Wen glanced away, disconcerted by the blond boy's reaction. "Well anyway…do you know where Tomoki is?"

Naruto shut his eyes and canted his head. His rescuer followed the gesture through the darkness and looked. "Aw, no!" he muttered in alarm then hurried to where Tomoki lay. Wen knelt and shook his head in disbelief. "Aw, no, no, no," he went on, "Tomoki." He remained there stunned for a moment, then abruptly came to his feet and waved his lantern frantically. "Hey!" he cried out at the top of his lungs toward the group that awaited.

"Shut up!" snarled Naruto so fiercely that Wen at once fearfully complied.

Wen gave the boy a peculiar look. "What…what do you mean?" the young man's voice quaked uncertainly. "We can take you someplace safe, get you out of the cold, get some food in you."

Without looking at him, the leaf-genin intoned: "I'm not going anywhere…neither is he."

The puzzled uchi-deshi's mouth formed an 'o' as his eyes wandered in thought. "But Naruto, Tomoki's….Tomoki's…, and you don't look so good either." The older boy fell silent as he clearly expected Naruto to receive his advice. "I mean," he continued awkwardly when it was not, "you can't stay here."

Moments passed in silence until the stubborn genin replied at last, "watch me."

Wen's expression blanked then melted with sympathy as his shoulders slumped. "'You mind some company, then?" When Naruto didn't answer, Wen interpreted it as assent and sat down next to him. "He was a good guy. I probably don't have to tell you, right?"

The leaf-genin nodded slowly, then lashed his hand out to intercept Wen's incoming strike. Only when it was too late did he realize that's what he'd expected. The eggshell hidden in the bigger uchi-deshi's fist burst, casting a cloud of powder into Naruto's surprised face.

Naruto barked in shock then threw himself aside and kicked, catching Wen in the chest. The older boy gasped and fell back as the genin leaped away then came to his feet in a wobbly crouch. Kunai knives were in his hands and his teeth were bared, but his vision was speckled with pricks of light and his body was starting to drop out from under him. All in a rush Naruto found himself face down in the mud and completely paralyzed, feeling nothing but an acidic burning around his face, nose, throat and down into his lungs.

Hands he didn't feel pried the young ninja up and flipped his limp body over, then cleared the gunk from his eyes and nostrils. "I'm sorry, Naruto," he heard Wen apologize. "That was a cheap trick. I know you've been through a lot already, and you didn't deserve that…but you really didn't leave me any choice. I hope…I just hope you're not mad or anything."

Wen rose to his feet, grasping his chest, then shouted. He kept shouting until, at last, more of the Princess in Exile's uchi-deshi arrived. Among them were medical nins who bore stretchers and doctor's kits.

Naruto's world spun as strange hands lifted him expertly onto a stretcher and strapped him in, then he felt the ground leave him as they carried him away. Every remaining thought demanded that he fight this. He'd vowed to remain, yet here he was unable to prevent himself from being trucked off like so much garbage; his body rocked from his attendant's harmonic strides.

The sky was growing light as his vision was going dark. He could see the clouds yield to the radiant dawn, and a rising sun that gilded their retreating edges in streaks of fiery gold. Sounds rang in his ears and visions passed before his eyes as he raged impotently until all thoughts were stilled by a single overheard utterance: "Hold on!" the receding voice cried urgently. "This one's still alive!"


	12. A Kingdom Raised From Ashes

_No!_ Tomoki's spirit recoiled furiously from what he knew now about the impending fate of his friend, Naruto, the Hidden Leaf Village, and all the rest of the world's inhabitants. _It's impossible!_ he raged._ We stopped the guei! We stopped them!_ The very act of singular thought, "I", "we", "us" and "them", caused him to whirl in the afterlife's dreamlike ether, as if he'd been overtaken by unseen vortices and tossed into turbulent waters.

Tomoki's feelings of helplessness and regret dissolved before an overpowering awe as the boy felt himself begin to float, rising buoyantly towards a world of light and murmuring voices. The sense of arrival flooded him, an anxious anticipation of peace at last after so many travails. Even if ruin befell all else, there was nothing more he could do. He'd tried, he'd died, and no one could question his efforts anymore.

A fearful puzzlement then took hold as he stopped short of the goal. The light was there still, beckoning him on, but he came no closer to it nor did it to him.

_What is it?_ Tomoki wondered anxiously; quaking before celestial judgment. _What's wrong?_

The light solidified into a blinding circle of yellowish-white surrounded by luminous rings of almost equal intensity. Mysteriously, it started to buzz. It flickered once and then again. The next time it did so, Tomoki half-suspected it was because he'd blinked.

_Blinked?_ the genin questioned himself, finding an odd sort of humor in the notion. _No, that can't be right._

The noises that echoed around him were more distinct now, sharper from the unintelligible drone they'd been. There was crying, snoring, curses and prayers. There were children, men and women.

_'Cause if I just blinked,_ he followed along – a prisoner of reason, _then that would mean that I'm…_

A cough shook him then, sending ripples of pain coursing through his _body_. It was true, he was not a being of spirit anymore (if indeed, he ever was) but of substance – wounded flesh and broken bones. The boy groaned as he noted now the all-too familiar scents of antiseptics and medical unguent that flooded his nostrils, and felt the tight cling of stitches and bandages against his skin.

_No…no way!_ the young ninja objected bitterly, then shuddered as the reality set in – life; life with it's continual struggles, it's pains and disappointments, and all the countless failures. _But,_ he argued to himself,_ I can't wake up. I was dead...really dead this time! Wasn't I?_

Tomoki lay there numb and in shock. _It isn't fair!_ he cried. Tears pooled in his eyes as his senses imposed upon him the extent of his deformed condition, while his memory teased with all that he'd seen and been through. The genin tried to force himself asleep; to at least retreat into a land of painless oblivion, but the murmuring voices around him granted him no peace. Worse still was the giant light that hung over his cot, burning through his sealed eyelids into his cortex and into his conscience.

From a reflex half-remembered, Tomoki tried to form the hand-seals for his Five Elements/Eight Harmonies Jutsu with all its miraculous healing powers, but it was a wasted effort as he should have remembered. Wrappings and sutures bound his movements, and his fingers, having all been broken, were held fast by rigid splints.

_Aw…crap,_ he summed up desolately then tried to rest, being that he had few other options.

A flicker of concern played along the outskirts of the boy's mind. _Naruto,_ he thought as he remembered the last time he saw the always-surprising genin, laying in the shadow of a broken standing-stone.

Tomoki blew out a breath then winced at how wildly nonsensical that sentiment was. _Yeah, right, _he considered gloomily, _as if Naruto needs anyone to look after him, let alone you._ _He's got all that strength, and the power of the Nine-Tailed Fox. _A spike of jealousy surfaced, unbidden. _Even without that, he took down three guei…three! Now, just look at you lying here – a living wreck. You can't even die right._

Again Tomoki shut his eyes. His body felt heavy and he was so tired that even remaining conscious felt like a burden too heavy to bear. But sleep did not come. That light was in his eyes and was too big and bright to ignore.

After awhile, the preoccupied patient's brow knitted and a sigh escaped his dry lips. _So what are you going to do, Tomoki?_ he asked himself. _Are you really going to drag your cut-up carcass out of this cot and try to find him? _The ninja moaned at the stupidity, the sheer vanity, of the idea. "You are, aren't you," he rasped, and this time it was a statement not a question.

After he'd braced himself for the effort, the boy rolled to one side then hissed through clenched teeth as sutures snapped taut across his arms, legs and trunk where Desdemona's razor-sharp monofilament had cut him. Momentum carried his body over so that he straddled the cot's hard, metal edge, with his bandaged cheek mashed against it.

Tomoki rested there for a few minutes to let his racing breath calm and the streaking pains die down to more tolerable levels. Without giving himself too much time to think about it, he let one leg drift gingerly to the floor where it sought then eventually found purchase. In this awkward position he worked it so that he could lower the other leg down, then pushed himself to his feet.

At last he was vertical, but the effort had taken a total commitment. The boy's limbs quaked while the surging flow of blood through his veins and arteries rushed like rivers in his head. Only then did Tomoki discover that his body had forgotten how to maintain itself upright! Seized with panic, the genin yelped as he swayed and wobbled beside his bed like some sort of diminutive mummy, wrapped in bandages and a loose-fitting, pea-green patient's gown.

When at last Tomoki was able to stand, rigidly, with his arms low and outstretched for balance, and his eyes wide, he gasped with relief.

Freed at last from the light's yellow tyranny, Tomoki now looked around in quiet shock. Upon the vast concrete floor on which he stood, a matrix of cots surrounded him in a field of white rectangles. Each was home to a suffering or motionless patient. The leaf-genin's eyes cast around the voluminous space at the metal-sided walls, long-spanning steel bents, and huge, hanging lights.

_Some kind of warehouse…_the boy realized then took a slow, short step. His tortured flesh objected instantly. Taking a moment to deliberate, Tomoki reckoned that this was a really bad idea. He turned haltingly to settle back on his cot, but was then confronted with the problem of how he would get back down into it without tearing himself to pieces.

_You're a real screw-up_, the ninja assessed ruefully, winced, then turned back and began to shuffle his way down the aisle. As he cast his gaze around, he noted the fearful expressions on the poor, shocked citizens of Earth Country, and saw injuries that made his seem barely worth mentioning. A guilty pang fell over him. No matter how bad things were, it was no worse than what many others had suffered. All things considered, his survival was nothing less than a miracle.

Swallowing hard and accepting his situation, Tomoki looked down the aisle-way he traveled and saw that it receded into the distance then ended at a pair of gigantic, coiling doors. In the far corner of the immense building an office area boxed off by walls and windows buzzed with activity, and people coming and going. Tomoki's eyes rose with a start as he recognized among the slate-colored, commando-style uniforms of the stone-ninja, the blue and white of Lady Acacia's uchi-deshi.

_Things must really be messed up if they've let her come back_, it occurred to him with a start as he considered the tumult that must have followed the collapse of Castle Omphalos. His expression set firmly. _But she'll know what's going on…and where I can find Naruto._

Tomoki burned with exasperation as he limped stiffly down the aisle. It was taking him forever to negotiate what would normally take him a single, bounding stride! His vision blurred as he listed dizzily and almost blacked out. Forcing himself to hurry, he managed to steer his path toward a white-curtained cubicle then braced himself against its corner post, palming it feebly with splinted hands.

While he rested there, the genin looked again toward the distant office. From its door rushed two stone-ninja: a boy, short, rail-thin and red-headed; followed by a pudgy girl with mousy pig-tails.

_Fugo…_Tomoki blinked as he remembered the genin, _and Reona!_

Though the sight of pugnacious Fugo made him grimace unconsciously, he was warmed by the sense of relief he felt that Reona was all right.

The two were arguing, which didn't seem at all unusual. Fugo shouted something at his teammate, stamped his foot then turned and sped off, rushing down the aisle way right past where the bandaged leaf-ninja stood. Tomoki turned his head away just to make sure the red-head didn't recognize him, then turned back as Reona followed.

He'd thought to call out to her, but the kunoichi was already slowing her pace as she approached him then stopped and stared.

"Tomoki?" the girl squeaked uncertainly.

A weak, lop-sided grin crept over the leaf-ninja's face. "Hello again, Reona," greeted Tomoki softly. "I'm surprised you recognized me."

Reona's face went wide with amazement and she made to throw her arms around him but then thought better of it, owing to his condition.

The pair looked at each other, not really knowing what to say, until Tomoki added guiltily: "I think the last time we talked I might have scared you a little. Sorry about that."

The cries and mutters of the patients around them quieted. The constant swinging and banging of the office doors as people came and went, and the buzzing ballasts from the lights above echoed in the stillness.

Reona's expression wriggled for a moment, then she shrugged and offered, "No big deal." She sucked in her lips, fidgeting awkwardly as she stood there. "It's really good to see you…you know, alive and everything."

"Thanks," Tomoki replied with weary earnest, "you too."

Reona smiled, then suddenly her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms. "Just what do you think you're doing walking around?!" she demanded sharply. "You should be resting!"

The leaf-ninja grinned weakly. "Yeah," he agreed, "I was thinking the same thing, but --."

"But nothing!" Reona cut him off. "Whatever it is can wait."

Tomoki shook his head. "I have to find Naruto," he stated but didn't explain why. The girl groaned and rolled her eyes. "You're worried about _him_?" she piped with disbelief, then attested: "He's fine, Tomoki. They found both of you at dawn today. I've seen him and he's hardly got a scratch…unlike you!"

Tomoki scowled at his own stupidity. It was exactly like he'd figured. Still, he gave her a serious look. "I just…need to talk to him for a minute."

Reona frowned and shook her head. "Well, he is pretty close by," she relented then asked testily, "If I take you to him, _will you go back to bed_?!"

Tomoki cracked a smile then nodded gratefully. "It's a deal."

The stone-ninja went to his side and the taller boy draped his leaden, bandaged arm over her shoulders. "Tell me," Tomoki said with a pained grunt as they started to walk together. "What's happened since the Castle fell?"

Reona shut her eyes in painful remembrance. "It's bad, Tomoki," said she in a hushed voice. "Most of the senior ninja were killed and all the remaining Shan. A lot of the city's flooded too, and the whole area near the base of the plateau got smashed."

Tomoki's eyes lifted somberly as he remembered the plutonian profile of Castle Omphalos teeter in the rain-lashed darkness then drop away, as if off the edge of the world. To him, the Shan had been a blight on humanity – a dark lineage who'd sought to extend their powers forever into the future though their kekkei-genkai. After four centuries of deaths and rebirths, life had meant little to them, and war had no consequences. They'd all traded their humanity and even their sanity for power.

_But for Reona and the rest,_ Tomoki thought, _this is probably like the end of the world. I'm just a visitor here, but for them and all the generations before them, there's never been a time without the Shan in charge._

"I'm sorry, Reona," muttered Tomoki in a hoarse whisper. "I tried to stop it. I really did, but…"

The girl looked up at him. "It's not your fault," she offered resiliently, "I know it was the Empress herself who brought the guei and the storms that destroyed the Castle."

Tomoki looked at her, mute with surprise. She obviously knew more about what had transpired than he'd thought, and accepted it better than he'd credited her. Of course, he remembered, she'd been there with Naruto when they'd dug up his body…but that was the last thing he wanted to talk about.

Humming thoughtfully, Tomoki asked, "So how are you all getting along with the uchi-deshi?"

Reona looked up at him and grinned. "Yeah, Lady Acacia brought them," she explained. "They're really amazing, her, Sebellius and the rest. They've worked non-stop to drain the city, built earthworks to contain the rivers, then took over a bunch of places like this to use as hospitals and shelters."

"Wow," muttered Tomoki, impressed. "I can't believe whosever in charge now would ask _her_ for help."

"No one's in charge, really," Reona clarified, and the boy heard the anxiety in her voice. "She came on her own."

"How did she know?"

"I…I told her, the same night the Castle fell."

Tomoki winced as his foot caught on an uneven joint. "You went to her?" he asked incredulously.

Reona's eyes fell. "Well, it was pretty scary what happened to you and everything!" the girl began defensively, "after Desdemona turned you into a guei. And Naruto, he's…he went and t-turned into some kind of werewolf or something, and then --." Her voice tightened. "Sensei got sent to the frontier, and I didn't think Uiko would know what to do. I didn't know where else to go or who to tell, so I…"

"Went to Lady Acacia's cottage," Tomoki finished for her, nodded, then commented reassuringly, "That was a smart call, Reona."

"Thanks," she said with a sniffle, then looked off distantly. "She's really incredible, Lady Acacia, I mean. I didn't know anyone knew jutsus like that – jutsus that control the elements."

Tomoki gave her a wry grin as he recalled his brief time with the Princess in Exile. "I can't say I'm too surprised."

The pair stopped before another cubicle partitioned by white curtains. "This is it," said Reona a little sadly as she gestured toward it.

Tomoki moved to enter, then noticed the girl's demeanor and turned back to her. "Aren't you coming?"

The kunoichi shook her head. "I got to catch up to that stupid Fugo," she said. "We're off to get more supplies from the dispensary."

"Oh," said Tomoki worriedly. "I hope I didn't set you back."

"Nah," said Reona. "It's ok. I've got my Ghost-Walk Jutsu, remember?"

Tomoki nodded. "Right," he agreed. "How could I forget? Thanks again, Reona."

"Anytime," she granted cheerily, then put her fingers together in a seal and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Tomoki grinned, then slipped through the curtains.

* * *

Once inside, he was brought up short by the sight of a motionless patient who lay on a cot, nude but for a cloth draped over his hips. It was a boy, barely older than Tomoki himself and racehorse lean, whose chest, legs and face sprouted long acupuncture needles which smoldered incense at their tips and swayed like reeds in the air's unfelt movements. Trails of the incense's fragrant smoke drifted upward in ghostly swirls.

Remembering how he occasionally barged in on his mentor, Ichi, when he was trying to treat a customer, Tomoki paused then moved to withdraw before it occurred to him that this motionless figure _was_ Naruto.

Tomoki's disquieted eyes widened as he approached the blond genin's bedside then looked down into his slack, distressed face. It was no wonder he hadn't recognized him at first. Though the conditioned air was temperate, Naruto's features were glazed in cold sweat. His skin, normally a healthy peach, was cadaverous and grey.

_Didn't Reona say that Naruto was ok?_ Tomoki puzzled then gulped hard as he paced along Naruto's body and reached a splinted finger toward his belly and the spiraling, black seal inscribed upon it like a tattoo. The bandaged leaf-ninja stared, having never seen it before, yet he'd known for awhile that it existed.

"Tomoki?" a ragged, lilting-accented voice called to him, and the startled ninja turned slowly toward a tall, black man dressed in the baggy blue and white uniform of Lady Acacia's students.

"Sebellius," the boy greeted quietly in reply, then slumped with relief.

The uchi-deshi knitted his brow. His eyes were red and tired, and his chin was coarse and unshaven. "What on earth are you doing out of bed, child? As it is, our medics are entirely at a loss as to how you survived exsanguination and then burial."

Tomoki looked up at the man, coughed dryly, then managed a clever smile. "Well it's way harder than it looks," he quipped.

The tall ninja gaped blankly at the boy's remark, then glared. "None of it!" he declared sternly in reply and waved his long arms. "I'm taking you back to your cot at once."

Tomoki chuckled at Sebellius' maternal reaction then turned serious. "No, wait, please," the leaf-genin prevailed and hobbled back towards Naruto, with his concern plain on his face. "How is he?"

Sebellius frowned. "Not good, I'm sad to say," the man reported flatly. "It doesn't look like he'll make it."

For a moment, Tomoki stared and said nothing. "What?" he gasped in disbelief.

"I'm sorry, Tomoki. He was in a terrible battle, and was then without food or shelter for almost three days in the cold and rain."

The genin shook his head slowly. "But…," Tomoki mumbled as he stared. "He's been through so much worse, a lot worse than that. I just don't understand how…" The leaf-genin's eyes roamed over his friend's afflicted form. Only when he shut them did he see the pattern in the array of needles set into Naruto's skin, stimulating or slowing the rivers of chakra that flowed through his body, and knew that something was wrong.

Tomoki was not an expert in acupuncture by any means, but certainly knew the basics from all the times Ichi had treated him. This array would not heal Naruto. It would not, and was not intended to. It leaked the flow of his energy outward, slowly draining the yellow-haired genin of life like air from a punctured tire.

The harsh realization crashed through Tomoki's thoughts. Heat rose like a prickly fire across his flushed, young brow as he fought back waves of horror and disbelief. Not knowing at that moment what to do, the leaf-genin swallowed hard and bit at his cracked lips, then turned slowly toward the towering ninja who looked back at him with an expression of perfect inscrutability.

"I know I haven't known you very long, Sebellius…but I kind of got the idea that you were a good guy," Tomoki managed to say with only a slight strain permeating his quavering voice. "So would you mind telling why you're trying to murder my friend?"

The uchi-deshi's gaze rose. "I was hoping you would sleep through it."

Tomoki startled at his cool admission. "Why?!" he cried, this time unable to hide the pain he felt. "I mean, what did he do?" A chilling thought occurred to the boy. His eyes widened as his breath caught in his chest. "Where's Lady Acacia? he hissed. "Did she tell you to kill Naruto?!"  
The man shook his head firmly. "She knows nothing of this," Sebellius intoned. "She has been, these last three days and nights in the city, toiling tirelessly to contain the waters, clear the wreckage and save as many people as she can…along with the rest of us." He gestured toward the prostrate Naruto. "I wish for you to understand that it is not from hatred or to right some wrong that I've done this," the uchi-deshi explained. It is because your friend is home to a great evil."

"Oh," said Tomoki reflectively, "that again."

Though disconcerted by the young ninja's reaction, Sebellius was undeterred. "There's no way you can understand…the sort of monster contained by that seal on his stomach."

The genin blinked. "Sebellius," he replied harshly, "I know exactly 'what sort of monster'. I've stood in its presence; it's held me in its jaws. So don't tell me what I know and what I don't." Tomoki paced slowly, as much as he was able to, then continued in a softer, more thoughtful voice, "I've had this conversation before too, about Naruto, with another who feared the demon imprisoned inside him. We kind of caused each other a lot of trouble. It was my fault too, in part…I just couldn't explain it right."

"Explain?" queried Sebellius doubtfully. "What sort of explanation could there be?"  
"I know what you must be thinking," Tomoki offered grimly. "If I'm not afraid, then I don't understand. Well, I was definitely afraid when I saw the Nine-Tailed Fox." He looked up at the ninja, accusing him bitterly with his eyes. "But you only know half the story, and knowing half the story about anything is worse than not knowing anything about it at all."

Sebellius gave him a cautious, obliging glance, lowered his lean frame and sat on an empty cot, then steepled his fingers – a gesture than granted the boy leave to finish what he had to say.

Tomoki tensed for a moment. Was the Princess in Exile's senior-most student really open-minded enough to hear him out, or was he just humoring him? Looking at Sebellius, the boy really couldn't tell. "The story starts thirteen years ago," Tomoki began, a little off-balance, "when the Nine-Tailed Fox attacked and almost destroyed the Hidden Leaf Village. The destruction was almost total and there was great loss of life. Everything would have been lost if not for our Fourth Hokage who sealed the demon inside Naruto, who was then just a baby, using a jutsu that's way beyond anything I can understand."

Tomoki stole a glance at Naruto and tried to judge how long his friend had left. Did Naruto's life or death really depend on his ability to make a judgment made long ago make sense? The young ninja frowned, then weighed what his chances were of pulling out some of those needles before Sebellius put a stop to it. None of the answers he came to were very reassuring.

"I'm not supposed to know any of this," Tomoki admitted as he continued. "The Third Hokage, Sarutobi, set forth an edict that no one was to speak of what happened that day. But really," he commented with a smirk, "telling people not to talk? You might as well tell them not to breath. It wasn't hard for me to find out what I wanted after I knew what to look for."

Tomoki ceased his pacing and stopped, interposing himself between Naruto and his killer, though the genin recognized that the gesture did nothing but make him feel a little better.

With his chin rested against his still-steepled fingers, Sebellius opined, "It seems to me that your Fourth was a cruel and wicked man for doing such a terrible thing to an infant. If such a seal is possible, then why not imprison this Fox-Demon in stone or iron…something that endures better than flesh and bone? Why curse a child?"

Tomoki nodded. "I had the same thought."

"It was a mistake then, or a perverse joke."

"No," the genin countered abruptly, "and that was the part I didn't understand either. The Fourth _knew_ what he was dealing with – a creature that revels in death and blood, whose appearance announces upheaval; an elemental evil that can never be killed or contained for very long."

Sebellius blinked and shook his head. "I don't know why you told me all that. I am now more convinced than ever that I am doing the right thing."

Tomoki quaked in frustration. "I'm not finished yet!" he stammered, realizing too late that losing his temper was probably a bad idea. "Even if you did kill the Demon, the energies that give it its power would continue on. They're like water. You can splash and sweep a puddle away, but the water hasn't been destroyed. It's seeped into the ground or evaporated into the air, and will reform before too long. The part I didn't understand," Tomoki continued in a measured tone, "is that the only real, lasting way to keep the Nine-Tailed Fox, or something else just as bad, from reappearing and again devastating humanity…is to transform it."

The ninja cocked a curious eye toward him. "By putting it into a person?" he ventured skeptically.

"Yes, exactly," the boy jumped to explain, gushing eagerly, "and in that way share his hopes and dreams, to know love and loss. In that way the Nine-Tailed Fox will become human, just a little bit…whether it knows it or not or wants to or not!" Tomoki's brow furrowed worriedly as he lost track of what he was going to say, but then the words came back to him – the same words that had made him understand in the first place; a quotation taken from the late, greatest, master-of-all-masters, Jun Fan Lee. "'Now you put water in a cup,'" he intoned, "'it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it into a teapot it _becomes_ the teapot.'"

Tomoki's face lit with a smile, but it quickly faded. To him it made perfect sense, but had he convinced Sebellius? "Being that vessel intended to shape the Nine-Tailed Fox is," the genin continued hesitantly, "maybe the hardest, most important duty anyone has ever undertaken, and Naruto never had any choice but to accept it." He turned toward the needle-bristled Naruto, trembled, then clenched his jaw. "I haven't known him that long, but I can tell you that no one could have picked anyone better for the job."

When Tomoki turned back to Sebellius, his eyes were set with defiance. "I don't know if anything I've said has gotten through, but there's something else you might think about if it matters to you," his voice broke with emotion. "Naruto's my friend, and that's reason enough why he's important to me. And I'm definitely not going to stand by and do nothing while you kill him."

Sebellius leaned forward then stood, rising up to his full, imposing height.

Calculations whirled through Tomoki's trained mind: with his fingers broken, he could not perform jutsu; he had no weapons; he was weak from previous injuries, and any sudden movement would tear his sutures. Sebellius, his opponent, was much bigger and stronger, had a substantial reach advantage, was in full health, and was at least jonin-level in terms of his training.

Unlike so many others in his class at the academy, Tomoki judged in that instant, he had nothing to fall back on. Sasuke could use his sharingan to see a hidden weakness. Shikamaru could undoubtedly think up some masterful strategy. Shino had his bugs, and Naruto… Tomoki considered his friend's current predicament then thought -- _Well, I guess nothing's an answer for everything._

The boy felt within himself for any lingering remnant of the monstrous power he'd wielded as a guei, but found nothing. "You know, Sebellius," he blurted suddenly, and not even he knew what he was about to say, "in these last couple of days I've watched an Empress die, a castle crumble, and a great house fall from power. I've killed four ghosts, was one myself, and came back from the dead. I know I look like I've got nothing left, but the truth is," the genin stated as he stepped forward and stared up at the man, "I haven't even started yet!"

_My God, what did I just say?!_ thought Tomoki, but it was too late to back down now.

Sebellius' dark, bloodshot eyes glared down then widened as he started to snicker. After only a few moments, he turned away with a hand clasped over his stomach. "Ok," said Sebellius, unable to contain his laughter. "Ok, little fellow…I'll tell you this – I never knew your Fourth Hokage, and don't know him," he gestured at the prone Naruto, "or you very well. It's hard to say if I should trust you over something as important as this."

Sweat beaded on Tomoki's forehead. If Sebellius was unconvinced by his explanation, and called his bluff, there wasn't a single thing he could do to stop him.

"Tomoki," the uchi-deshi asked him pointedly, "can you look me in the eye and say that you are certain of your conclusion?"

"Yes, Sebellius," Tomoki stated at once, "absolutely certain."

"Well, I don't know what other answer I expected," Sebellius replied with a frown. "Still, I think that you are a 'good guy' too. And I'm very tired, and I know it's bad to make decisions when you're tired and have many other things on your mind. Very well, Tomoki."

Relief gushed over Tomoki's face. "Really?" he squeaked as the tall student went to Naruto's side and began to pluck the needles out. "Thank you, Sebellius."

"Now what of you?" the man asked him. "Will you not rest?"

"Nah," declined Tomoki graciously. "I'll stick around 'till he wakes up. It's the least I can do."

The tall man ceased his ministrations, smiled and looked down at the boy. "It is difficult to trust someone you don't know, isn't it, for you as well as me. Ha, now you know how it feels."

"Huh?" said Tomoki with a blank expression. "Oh, no, it's not that."

Sebellius turned and stood before him, stooped and lifted him up then lowered him gently onto the empty cot. "I promise you," he said, "he'll still be here when you awake. But if what you told me turns out to be a lie, I shall be very, _very_ cross with you."

* * *

This time, Tomoki realized he was awake and conscious before his eyes were even open. He chose to keep them shut. Was he really ready to find out if Sebellius had kept his word? What would he do if he hadn't – give up yet another chapter of his life to bloody revenge? In mere moments the tension got to be too much and he opened his eyes.

Naruto Uzumaki sat beside him, half-asleep and slumped back in a chair. He looked to be deep in thought and far from his normal energetic self, but he was alive…still definitely alive!

Hardly believing his eyes as a smile broke over his face, Tomoki slowly pushed himself up.

Naruto, alerted by his movement, turned toward him in amazement; his sapphire eyes shining, a beatific smile lighting his whisker-marked face.

"Hi --," Tomoki started to say, but before he could get the word out, Naruto threw his arms around him and hugged him close. Bandages pulled and sutures tugged like a thousand cats' claws in the genin's skin, but he didn't care. There was nothing he could lose now that wouldn't be more than made up for by this moment, when his friend seemed more solid, warm and real than anything he'd felt before.

As they embraced, Tomoki felt Naruto's cheek move like he was trying to say something. He waited curiously, with his splinted hands resting tightly against the genin's orange back.

"I'm…," Naruto mumbled at last, forcing the words, but then stopped.

_I'm…what?_ Tomoki wondered.

"I'm…really sorry I hit you, Tomoki," the blond ninja blurted suddenly, as if they were the most important words ever spoken.

Tomoki tried hard to remember what Naruto might be talking about but nothing came to mind. "Uh…," he started tentatively, "it's ok, Naruto. It's ok."

One of the white curtains that enclosed them rustled, and Sebellius entered.

Naruto relaxed his hold as did Tomoki, whereupon the tall uchi-deshi smiled reluctantly then said, "Lady Acacia would like to speak with you, if you are both well enough."

Tomoki studied the man's expression, searching for anything related to the fateful decision he'd made just hours ago at the most but Sebellius let nothing obvious show through. The leaf-genin then answered his friend's concerned look with a nod, and let Naruto help him to his feet. Together, they followed Sebellius out into the warehouse-turned-hospice, and then towards the expansive office that occupied its corner.

"What's she want with us?" asked Naruto bluntly of the tall man's back.

Sebellius shrugged. "If I knew, I would tell you," he answered with a familiar air. "But Lady Acacia has been dealing with many different matters this morning, and only just now asked that I bring you."

Naruto grumbled suspiciously, making Tomoki wonder if he suspected anything.

Though they went slowly, on Tomoki's behalf, they arrived soon enough at the warehouse's office. Sebellius held the dented metal door open for the two genin, then slipped in front of them to guide them through a lobby, down a short hallway, and into a larger room that bustled with people – citizens of Earth Country, workmen, stone-ninja, and the Princess in Exile's students.

Behind a big folding-table topped with a collage of paper, letters and forms sat Lady Acacia herself. There was little about her that reminded the two genin of their previous encounter. Her cheeks were slack, her hair was tangled and unwashed, and dark bags hung under her eyes. She hadn't eaten or slept in days, and was trying to run her body off chakra, which was exceedingly dangerous if done for too long. Despite all that, Tomoki felt somehow reassured by her presence.

She peered through the crowd toward them, then startled with alarm. "Ok, everybody!" the Princess in Exile announced. "Give me some space; I need ten minutes."

With that, everyone slowed to a stop then filed out of the room, leaving her, Sebellius, the rest of her senior students, and the two leaf-ninja.

Sebellius pulled up two chairs, and Naruto guided Tomoki down into one of them and sat in the other.

Lady Acacia looked briefly at Naruto then stared hard at Tomoki, blinked, then stared again as she assessed the extent of his wounds. "I heard you were alive," she said wearily, "but didn't think to ask about your condition. Now I'm kind of glad I didn't." Acacia took a gulp from a big mug which had left its ring on some papers, groaned, then smiled empathetically. "How are you feeling, Tomoki?" she asked.

Tomoki thought for a second. "Alive," he answered straightforwardly.

"That's good," said Acacia, who looked at them meaningfully. "You know, it seems to me that I told you something like 'nothing good awaited you in the Village Hidden Among the Stones'. I'd say, I called that one right."

The genin nodded quietly.

Naruto frowned, his eyes narrowed to slits. "Look, Lady," he asked, "what's this all about?"

The Princess blinked slowly. "In short," she stated, "your repatriation."

"My what?!" barked Naruto aghast.

"We're going home, Naruto," Tomoki translated. "Home."

The mood their brief conversation created changed then as the front door swung open suddenly and a pair of angry, booted footsteps stormed down the hall.

"Oh, well isn't this nice?!" seethed Catullus upon his arrival. "Got all the unusual suspects together in one room." The stone-chunin's fiery eyes swept around, then he pointed squarely at the two leaf-ninja. "You!" he hissed and rushed toward them, but Sebellius headed him off.

For several long moments the air thickened with tension as the two traded opposing expressions: Catullus' implacable; Sebellius' unassailable.

"Out of my way, big man," commanded the stone-ninja who lowered his finger like the head of a pike toward Tomoki and Naruto. "I got me a hell of a lot of questions to ask, and it starts with them."

"Oh," the tall uchi-deshi remarked absently. "What sort of questions?"

"Like what the f--- happened to my country?!" Catullus shouted up at him. "Yeah, that's a good place to start!"

The dark-skinned ninja grunted. "Do you really imagine it was those two who destroyed Castle Omphalos?" he asked gently, almost rhetorically, then lowered his gaze. "It seems unlikely to me. Maybe you should pick on someone…_your own size_."

"I'll pick on anyone I feel like!" he answered immediately, apparently unconcerned about the presence of the dozen or so other senior uchi-deshi, all dressed in blue and white.

Lady Acacia broke in tiredly. "Children, please," she began. "If you're intent on marking your territories, do it somewhere else…you're stinking up the place."

"Oh!" chortled Catullus, in a voice that spurted sarcasm. "Look who's decided to chime in – it's the Princess in Exile, except you're not in exile anymore, are you? I guess not because you're walking around downtown Iwagakure like you own the f---ing place!"

"Catullus," sneered Sebellius, "you are a pig. Watch your mouth! Lady Acacia's been working nonstop all through the days and nights to lift away mountains of rubble and coax the rivers into a manageable state. You should be grateful to her and all of us!"

The chunin's eyes went wide. "D…did you say 'grateful'? This is a rebellion!" he roared. "A coup! The city's been overtaken by a private militia with an outlaw for its leader!" the man spat and pointed accusingly at Acacia.

The Princess looked up at him from behind her table with an expression of strained tolerance. "Your Tsuchikage is dead," she reminded him, "so is your Empress. The Shan are no more. All your highest-ranking jonin, your generals and most of your ninja are in the field, at war. Of those few who are left after the Castle's collapse, you are highest-ranking amongst them. At least, there are no others who have stepped forward to present themselves. The only reason we're in your city at all is because the place was drowning and lawless."

"So you're the new law, is that right?" Catullus glared at Acacia. "Are you our new Tsuchikage?!"

Everyone's eyes drifted toward her. "No," she insisted then rubbed her bleary eyes.

"Well then," Catullus went on. "If that's true, then you won't mind if I take you into custody." He took a step toward her then halted as her disciples moved to intervene. "Oh, what?! What?" he challenged. "Is there a problem?!"

"No, Catullus," said Acacia, who rose from her folding chair and walked around the table toward him. "You're right. I have no legitimate claim to power here." She looked at her surprised disciples, then back to the man. "Even if I did, I suppose, if I refused to accept the law's judgment then I'd have little right to dispense it. If you wish, you may arrest me. Neither I nor any of my students will stop you."

Catullus' expression went blank for a moment, as even he was surprised by her acquiescence, then set determinedly.

"Stop being so stupid!" enunciated Naruto suddenly, who came to his feet. "Catullus, you've got to be smarter than this. You know Acacia didn't have to come; she could've let you all drown. Are you really going to let some law written by people who aren't here anymore and weren't much good to begin with stop you from doing the right thing?"

The chunin gaped, frozen and inflamed, while Naruto now rounded on Lady Acacia. "And you! Oh, sure, you're all about the letter of the law, aren't you?! Like Empress Desdemona ever thought you'd live in a mansion with an army of ninja at your command when all she'd granted you was a cottage and a few live-in students. Yeah, it must be nice to have a title, 'Princess in Exile', with all the glory and none of the responsibilities."

Catullus, Acacia and everyone else gazed at Naruto, amazed, impressed or appalled by the blond boy's brash temerity. Tomoki's jaw fell open, knowing he'd be irate with his friend's almost-expected antics, if the genin had not just given voice to the plain truth.

In any case, Naruto hadn't finished. "Yeah, right," he went on sharply in his gravelly tenor, "now that the going's tough you're going to step aside and force this idiot to make the decisions for you?" He whipped his finger toward Catullus. "Please, Lady, if you don't have the balls for the big job then just say so! But don't give us this 'respect for the law' stuff, 'cause it's garbage."

Tomoki and the whole rest of the room froze, flat-lined by the young ninja's tirade. But what he'd said had cut to the bone, and the way he'd said it was not as a petulant child, but as a man who saw clearly, and cared deeply. Tomoki stared at his friend, marveling at how he'd deepened over so short a time. His eyes swiveled toward the others, Catullus and Lady Acacia. Hard truth was often not well-received.

"Well…there it is," remarked Acacia absently, then said with a smile: "Please, Naruto, tell us what you really think." The blond almost shook with anger, no, that wasn't it exactly, disappointment, as the woman continued, "But I am sorry to fall short of your expectations." She laughed lightly and gave him a charitable smile. "And I'm sure that, to a boy who wants to be Hokage so badly, it seems almost…inconceivable that anyone would refuse the reigns of power when opportunity presents them."

The Princess' soft words filled the room like organ music in a cathedral. Everyone knew that something greatly important was being decided, and all eyes were upon her. "I'm sorry," she said, "but Tsuchikage is a mantle I cannot take up."

Naruto's face fell as he shook his head. "It's not me you should worry about. What about all those people laying out there in the hospital, all the soldiers off fighting a four-hundred year long war!?" he argued.

Acacia drew in a breath but looked away, torn and uncertain.

"Maybe you're thinking to yourself: why me?" Tomoki broke in unexpectedly, reciting as if to himself. His introspective tone fortified the silence. "Why not send somebody bigger, stronger, older or more experienced? My answer to that is: why _not_ you? If you have survived so far, then you must be doing something right. Then, finally I would tell you that I've been around for a long, long time and can say with some certainty that we could do worse."

Catullus scoffed, looked around and muttered: "What the hell's that supposed --."

"No, wait," said Acacia curiously as she turned toward the genin. "Who told you that, Tomoki?"

The boy looked up from where he sat. "The one who really sent us here."

The weary Princess in Exile closed her eyes then turned away, and raised a hand to her cheek. All eyes were still on her as she started to chuckle. "You two are quite a pair," she remarked, "one pushes while the other pulls." The woman drew a contemplative breath. "I thought I was pretty clever when I tricked you back at my cottage, but I see now that it was not I who held the grasping end of the leash. Your masters are angels…or devils, terrible spirits either way," she intoned.

Lady Acacia turned then to the stone-ninja, who fought to keep a lid on his temper and his confusion. "Catullus," the woman explained, "although I did indeed enjoy my title and its many benefits, I never in my life craved power. I could see for myself that using it properly was a difficult art. However, word of the Castle's destruction and the death of the Shan dynasty will not take long to reach our armies in the field, or the ears of our many enemies." The stone-ninja gave her a pained look, but nodded that he accepted what she said as valid. "There is no leadership here," continued the Princess in Exile. "I will not insist that I fill that void, but there needs to be someone."

"Lady Acacia, our Second Tsuchikage," muttered Catullus sourly. "It may take me some time to warm up to the idea."

"Granted."

"I suppose I could, maybe, agree to a probationary period?" suggested the ninja coyly.

Acacia gave him a tentative glance. "I think that's fair."

"Good, you've got fifteen minutes to impress me," Catullus informed her tersely as he looked down at his watch, "Go."

The woman grinned confidently in the face of his unexpected challenge. "First thing," she began in stride, "send word to all the legions a-field and apprise them of the situation here. They are to cease hostilities and withdraw as soon as practicable to defensive positions. The commanders are to use their discretion to minimize losses.

"Second: inform the leaderships of our adversaries, especially that of the River Lands, that peace is at hand if they want it. If not then, despite whatever it may cost us, I will pursue our four-hundred year long war to its bitter conclusion."

The interim Tsuchikage paced back toward her table then turned to address her disciples. "I'm sorry, my students, that it is you I have to send," she offered, and managed to sound calm about it though it was clear that it took an effort. "It's very dangerous work, I don't have to explain. I never expected to have to send you on such an undertaking…I'll just have to hope that I've trained you well. Of course, I never expected to be Tsuchikage either, even if it's just for fifteen minutes," said Acacia with a forced, flamboyant grin, and a flash of her old humor which brought smiles to the faces of her disciples. She cocked her head and cast a look then at her overseer. "Catullus, how am I doing so far?"

The man grimaced as he leveled his eyes, raised his palm level with the floor then rocked it back and forth.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Lady Acacia acknowledged. "Third thing," she began then cut herself a sheet of paper, brought forth an inkwell and brush then sat again at her table. "I have some major explanations to issue in regards to the abduction and subsequent abuse of two of the Hidden Leaf Village's ninja." Catullus looked at Naruto and then Tomoki worriedly, then rolled his tongue along the inside of his cheek as Acacia continued, "I'd be very surprised if their armies are not already on the march here. Such an invasion would be somewhat inconvenient, considering how our city is now, basically, undefended and all." She looked again to Catullus. "Impressed yet?"

The dour chunin dropped his watch hand then shut his eyes. "History will curse me for this," he growled obliquely, turned, then left the room.

Lady Acacia sighed as she watched him go. "You and me both, maybe."

"Your Hokage," she asked the two genin. "What is his name?"

"Sarutobi," Naruto answered obligingly as a satisfied grin dawned on his face. "But you don't have to worry about him. He's super-nice, for an old guy."

Tomoki added glumly, "Seriously, Lady Acacia, that was great the way you got through to Catullus, but Naruto's fine, and I doubt the Hokage even knows my name."

The former Princess in Exile set aside her brush and looked at the bandaged boy reprovingly. "I have not had the opportunity to converse with all my students either, Tomoki. But that should not suggest that I would be indifferent if somebody kidnapped and tortured a couple of them." Lady Acacia, the new Tsuchikage, looked at the two genin, took in Tomoki's horrific appearance then set back to work. "I'd better lay this on thick."

* * *

In the shadow of the great monument to the Four Hokages, whose stone visages looked down upon the Hidden Leaf Village, Naruto and Tomoki waited. Naruto, though unusually calm, seemed like his normal self. Even his singular, orange outfit, jacket and pants, had been patched and laundered, and seemed little worse for wear. Tomoki, to the contrary, remained substantially bandaged, with his fingers splinted and with a dressing taped to his cheek. Being that his usual clothes had been ruined beyond repair, he wore a baggy blue and white uniform whose style and color meant nothing here. Cradled in one arm was a sturdy, leather scroll-case. Within it were a letter of introduction from Lady Acacia, an elaborate explanation and apology for Naruto and Tomoki's abduction and mistreatment, and then an official declaration of amity and respect toward Fire Country and the Hidden Leaf Village on behalf of Earth Country and the Village Hidden Among the Stones.

Before the two genin, a great plaza swept that overlooked a valley below. The Hokage, with who they wished an audience, looked up fondly at the towering monument with his hands rested on the guardrail, then turned to address a class of academy students – a score of little kids who sat cross-legged as they gazed at him. Their teacher, Iruka-sensei, stood nearby with a smile on his face and his hands clasped behind him. He looked more than happy to defer to the great ninja on this chance occasion that he and they should be here at the same time.

It had only been a few minutes since Naruto and Tomoki appeared at the outskirts of the city from a blur of color and swirling lights, accompanied by Reona Sato, a kunoichi of the Village Hidden Among the Stones. Though the long journey by means of her Ghost-Walk Jutsu taxed her, she'd been more than happy to do it – a solo 'C' class mission assigned to her by the new Tsuchikage. It was quite an honor. Naruto had congratulated her in his own generous, expansive way, while the pensive Tomoki nodded and smiled in agreement. Only at the end did he call her back and the two hugged their goodbyes.

As the two ninja waited now for their Hokage, it was Tomoki who squirmed uncomfortably in his gifted, uchi-deshi's uniform, while Naruto stood with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"What's wrong, Tomoki?" asked Naruto at last.

The other boy closed his eyes. "I can't do this," he mumbled.

"What are you talking about?" The blond genin's eyes rose. "Do what?"

"This!" explained Tomoki emphatically as if it should be obvious.

Naruto frowned, looked out at the Hokage, Iruka-sensei, and all the little kids. "What's there to do? All you gotta do is hand off those scrolls," he said and put his hands on his hips. "What's the problem?"

"I…I don't really think you'll understand." Tomoki shook his closely-cropped head. "It's like I've already seen what's going to happen – like a memory, though it hasn't happened yet. Don't look at me like that! Just listen, will you." He cast his eyes toward the other side of the plaza where the two ninja stood: one elderly and regal, in a wide, red and white hat, and robes of flowing white; the other, a youthful chunin in a grey, multi-pocketed vest worn over a blue uniform. "You see Iruka-sensei there and the Hokage, right?" Tomoki ventured. "Right now, the Hokage's all wrapped up in what he's saying to the kids. Iruka-sensei's following along too and so neither of them has noticed us. But soon, any time now, he'll look up and see us standing over here waiting." The bandaged genin's dull, brown eyes glanced momentarily into Naruto's brilliant blue, then darted away.

"Ok," Naruto obligingly accepted, "I really don't see how you think you know all that. So then what?"

"He notices you first," Tomoki continued in a grumbling voice. "No big surprise being that you're highway-cone orange, but he likes you too, and smiles when he sees how patient you're being. Then he glances at me and wonders who I am for a second, 'cause I look like an advertisement for medical supplies or something. He looks at my weird clothes, my scroll case, then finally my face before he finally recognizes me.

"Then he gets really curious," Tomoki described. "His eyes get big and you can tell that he's worried at what this is all about, so he turns to Lord Hokage but he's too polite to interrupt him when he's having this nice conversation with the kids. And he really is too, you know, they're really sharing a moment. Then --," Tomoki broke off and looked away. "You don't believe any of this, do you," he stated somberly.

"I believe you enough to keep listening," Naruto ventured. "But I still don't get why you can't give him those scrolls."

"I guess I can't blame you for that," said Tomoki who shifted uncomfortably. "I might as well finish -- After awhile, the Hokage wraps things up and turns back to look at the monuments with this really, and I can't quite describe it, powerful expression on his face. Iruka waits a little bit then taps his shoulder and lets him know about us. Lord Hokage then turns around and looks hard. He's squinting, because his eyesight isn't good at this distance for making out faces. He straightens up and waves us over."

Naruto glanced again at the Hokage, who smiled as he bantered with the children.

"This is the part I can't do, Naruto," explained Tomoki in a strained voice. ""Cause you see, then I'm supposed to go over there, a student he doesn't remember except maybe as the guy who got crushed during the chunin exams, to give him a message he wasn't expecting from a woman he's never met, and tell him a story he won't believe." His splinted hands trembled while his brow furrowed seriously. "I shouldn't have to do that, Naruto, and I won't!" Tomoki hissed to keep himself from shouting. "I'm done! That's it!"

"Come on, Tomoki," soothed Naruto who rocked on his heels and put his hands in his pockets. "Get a grip. It's not that bad."

"It doesn't have to be!" the genin erupted back. "Don't you get it? I have nothing left. I'm not strong like you. Look at you – not a scratch! Everything you go through, no matter how terrible, only makes you stronger." Tomoki looked at the ground, not wanting Naruto to see him in such a sloppy state. "I'm not stronger. I'm worn out…I feel like what I've lost can never be replaced. And I mean more than just my clothes, my swords, and my f-fingers."

The warm wind blew softly, carrying mellow laughter from where Konoha's children joked with their Hokage.

"I…I've done a lot in the name of trying to do the right thing; trying to make up for a life spent mostly on getting revenge. But I can't do it anymore," Tomoki said and lifted the scroll for Naruto to take.

Naruto looked down at the package from Lady Acacia, then into Tomoki's eyes as he pushed it away. "Sure you can," he said simply.

"What? No, Naruto --," Tomoki started, but was cut off.

"You're stronger than you know," the blond reassured, then his sympathetic face bloomed into a ridiculous grin. "After all, you're my friend, and I know that can't be easy, right?"

"I…," Tomoki stammered at the unexpected question, his expression searching, "right."

"So go and tell your story," Naruto advised. "You should be proud, even if the Hokage doesn't know your name. Besides, maybe it really was him and not the qi-lin who sent you on this mission in the first place. Don't you want to know?"

Tomoki's eyes widened then fell. "A little," he conceded weakly and shrugged.

"Good," the blond piped, "because…we're on!"

"Huh?" Tomoki looked up. At that very moment across the plaza, Iruka-sensei cast the two genin an anxious glance as he tapped the Hokage gently on back and said something to him. The old ninja lord turned to look at them, narrowing his eyes as he tried to focus, then straightened and gestured for them to approach.

Naruto rested his palm between Tomoki's shoulder blades then shoved, sending him lurching forward. Though he stumbled and cast a nasty look at the still-grinning blond, he continued to walk. Only when the bandaged genin was half-way there did he raise his head to look. His glance swept past the academy students, whose puzzled, wide-eyed faces turned to follow him.

Beyond and above the figures that waited for him: his lord, the Hokage; and his sensei, Iruka; the imposing visages of four Hokages looked down. Sunlight streamed over their stone features in diaphanous veils, onto the rooftops and through the green tree canopies below.

Even when Tomoki's slow pace had carried him close to the two men, so close that he stood between their shadows, he would not look up for fear of what he might see in their eyes. Thoughts filled his head as everything that had happened to him in the last few days fought for position.

After a few moments, he came to a resolution – inexpressible yet acceptable. A grin crept over the boy's troubled face as he heard Naruto's eager footsteps follow, rushing to join him. Maybe it didn't matter what they thought, as much as he thought it did. Until his final day, he would only have himself to answer to.

_Go on and look,_ Tomoki urged himself as his eyes rose uncertainly to meet those of the Lord Hokage's. At that moment he was strong enough that if all he found there was the blank look of someone who didn't remember him, someone he'd never made an impression on, and someone entirely indifferent to his existence, it would not destroy him. He was strong enough so that if he found instead eyes that were warm and brimming with humanity, he could cry unashamed and be thankful.

Who had sent him on this mission in the first place, the Hokage, or the qi-lin? Even if the Hokage answered him, would he ever know for sure? Maybe the difference was not as clear cut as he'd thought. Every life influences every other, and none were unimportant no matter how fleeting or remote. So if he looked into the Hokage's eyes and found tunnels infinitely-deep, yielding vistas into forever, Tomoki would simply smile and nod. After all, we were all servants in heaven's court.

The End.

* * *

Hi, everybody who made it this far, all the way to the end. Thanks so much for reading. What did you think?

This was kind of a weird one as Naruto fanfiction goes, and was inspired by the Edgar Allen Poe (not to name-drop) short story The Fall of the House of Usher. I like E.A.P., but it's more exciting with ninja in it, don't you think? ;)


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